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ALABAMA : 



AS IT WAS, AS IT 'S, AND AS IT WILL BE. 



A^WORK 



EXHIBIT^ r THE AGRICULTURAL ACTUALITIES OF TftE SOILS OF 

THE STATL, WHEN PROPERLY CULTIVATED AND TILLED, IN 

COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF THE OTHER STArES OF THE 

UNION ; ITS PRESENT AGRICULTURAL DEFORMITIES, 

AND THE REMEDY THEREFOR ; ITS MINERAL AND 

OTHER INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS, FOUNDED 

UPON STATISTICS AND ACTUAL RESULTS. 



PKEPARED AT THx; REQUEST OJ i.xo SOUTH & XOKTH AL/»BA>r\ RAILROAD CO. 

BV 

JOHN T. MILNER, 

Late Chief E::gineeb and General Superintendent. 



F 



MONTGOMERY, ALA. : 

BAT. iETT & BRO\VN, STEAM BOOK AND 10B PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 



ALABAMA : 

AS IT WAS, AS IT IS, AND AS IT WILL BE. 



A WORK 



EXHIBITING THE AGRICULTUKAL ACTUALITIES OF THE SOILS OF 

THE STATE, WHEN PEOPERLY CULTIVATED AND TILLED, IN 

COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF THE OTHER STATES OF THE 

UNION ; ITS PRESENT AGRICULTURAL DEFORMITIES, 

AND THE REMEDY THEREFOR ; ITS MINERAL AND 

OTHER INDUSTKJAL INTERESTS, FOUNDED 

UPON STATISTICS AND ACTUAL RESULTS. 



PEEPABED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOXJTH & NOETH ALABAMA BAILBOAD CO. 

BY 

JOHN T. MILNER, 

Late Chief Engineer and General Superintendent. 



MONT?GOMERY, ALA. : 

BARRETT & BROWN, STBAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 

me. 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

JOHN T. MILNEH, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. 0, 



ALABAMA. 



In 1860, Alabama was a great and rich State — the seventh 
in aggregate of wealth of the Union of States, and exceeded 
in the aggregate prodndion of agricultural values by only 
Illinois, Pennsylvania, Neio York and Mississippi. Alabama 
was then at the height of her glory. Agricultural labor was 
better rewarded here than in any other State, except in Lou- 
isiana, Mississippi and California. How stands the matter 
now? Instead of number seven in the aggregate of our 
wealth, we are put down in the census of 1870 as exceeding 
only Texas, Kansas, West Virginia, Oregon, Nebraska, Dela- 
ware and Florida ; or a reduction of real and personal values 
fi-om 792,000,000 to 201,855,841 dollars, or about one fourth 
what it was before the war. At that time the value of her 
agricultural products, per capita of her farm population, was 
double that of any of the free States from Maine to Califor- 
nia, except California, Illinois and Iowa. She stands now, as 
will appear from the record, as made up by the Agricultural 
Bureau of our Government in her per capita crop production, 
scarcely one-half in value of that of the jjoorest of the States 
in the North and West. To find what is the matter with 
Alabama, and to propose a remedy, if any is to be found, is 
the object of my book. 

The South & North Alabama Rail Road, though traversing 
throughout three-fourths of its length the mineral region of 
the State, is like every other interest in the State of Ala- 
bama, dependent mainly upon agriculture for a support. If 
the agriculture of our State was now what it was when this 
road was commenced, and what I hope it will be again, the 
stock of this great rail road, costing ten millions of dollars, 
would be at par everywhere in the markets of the world. I 



can very clearly see, therefore, how it is to the interest of 
this road, to inquire into the causes of the ruin of the agricul- 
ture of Alabama, and to do ail in its power to restore it to its 
former splendor. The State of Alabama expects as much of 
this corporation, though in her corporate capacity as a State, 
she has rendered but little aid in dollars and cents in the 
construction of this rail road, she has ever and always, 
done all in her power, and, when before the war she was 
rich, powerful, and wealthy, she placed on her statute 
books an obligation to give one million of dollars in gold, as 
a bonus, for the completion of this great work ; and it would 
have lieen paid had Alabama lived. The part this corpora- 
tion proposes to take in repeopling Alabama and rebuilding 
her industries, is but a partial return for that deep feeling 
and favor which this railway has ever received from Alabama 
and her people. 

The fact is disclosed by the Federal census of 1870, that 
the agriculture of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, (the 
three leading cotton States before the war,) as can be seen, 
from Table No. 15, hereafter given, is less than one-half in 
bushels and pounds, and measured by the same standard, in 
dollars and cents, of what it was before the war. Even their 
farm valuation has followed the same ratio and rule, and'has 
fallen from $536,657,8U2 in i860, to $244,015,070 in i870. 

Thin measure of loss exists everyivhere in the South, and is 
greater or less in proportion to the number of negroes in any 
State, or any section of any State. As was heretofore stated, 
this paper is simply a synopsis of my forthcoming work on 
Alabama, and as such, it will be impossible to give in detail, 
all the arguments and facts upon which this work is founded. 
I will refer, however, to the authorities for every statement I 
may make, so that every one interested can examine the facts 
for themselves. This synopsis being written at the request of 
the South & North Alabama Kail Eoad Company, the argu- 
ments will be drawn from, and confined to, the counties in 
Alabama, along and contiguous to this road. 

This road begins at the city of Montgomery, and runs 
through the counties of Montgomery, Elmore, Chilton, Shel- 
by, Jefferson, Walker, Blount, Winston and Morgan, to Deca- 
tur, on the Tennessee river. The city of Montgomery, the 



5 

southern terminus of the road, lies practically in the centre 
of the cretaceous or prairie formation, extending entirely 
across the State— a distance of two hundred miles, and about 
fifty miles wide. This section, commonly called the Black, or 
Cotton Belt, covers an area of 10,000 square miles, or one- 
fifth of that of the whole State, and, before the war, produced 
more of agricultural values than any like area in the United 
States, and, perhaps, in the world. Decatur, the northern 
terminus, is practical'y in the centre of the Valley of North 
Alabama, as it is called — a region of country covering the en- 
tire northern end of the State, in length about one hundred 
and fifty miles, and about fifty miles wide, covering an area 
of about 7,500 square miles. This section of country, the 
most beautiful and delightful in this, or any other State in the 
Union, was, before the war, nest in importance in this State 
to the Black Belt, above referred to. Between these two 
sections at the northern and southern termini of the road, 
lies the Appalachian chain of mountains, with its rocks and 
minerals, its agricultural soils, and its ridges and elongated 
valleys ; precisely as they are found in Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia and Tennessee. The Appalachian mountains commence 
sinking away before they reach the border of Alabama, and 
by the time they reach the centre of the State, where they 
are crossed by the South & North Alabama Rail Road, they 
represent only a broad, elevated plateau, about one hundred 
and fifty miles across. About 1,000 feet of the rough, rugged 
mountains, and barren upper measures of the State's farther 
north, are washed away in Alabama ; and all the glittering 
minerals and metals of commerce, except silver, lie in Ala- 
bama, on the surface of a great plain, so to speak ; any and 
all of them capable of being aggregated at any given point, 
at the most ti'ifliag expense, when compared with other sec- 
tions of our country, where all these minerals of value are 
found. We find further, that as the rough, rugged, barren 
and interfering features of the mountain system farther 
north have been washed away, so have the noxious, hurtful 
and negative elements, found in the minerals themselves, been 
leached out and lost. This elevated plateau, or mountain 
region of Alabama, as it is called, has been cultivated, and is 
capable of beiiig pultiv^ted all over, and from the figures 



6 

hereafter given, it will be seen that the agricultural soils of 
this region have given to the husbandman as rich a reward as, 
upon an average, did those of Ohio and Indiana in 1860. 
All the minerals, of value in the State, are found in this re- 
gion. 

A section of country lying on each side of the road will be 
considered, and its agricultural and other industrial features 
will be measured, as will those of the Black Belt, and the 
valley of North Alabama. This great thoroughfare, although 
it has customers in every county in the State, except, perhaps, 
Sanford, Marion and Pickens, on the western border, is more 
immediately ^and directly interested in the country along the 
line and at each end of the road ; and for this reason, and 
this reason alone, I will confine myself to those sections of 
Alabama, Alabama is a good country, all over and every- 
where. The soils of some portions pay agricultural labor 
better than in others ; but through the varied industries of 
the State, labor, labor, good, effective labor, receives a rich 
and sufficient return everywhere in Alabama. I have lived 
in and been over all the old States of our Uoion, west of New 
York, and have also lived in and traveled all over the vast 
States and Territories west of the Mississippi River to the 
Pacific Ocean, except Arizona, Montana, Dakota, and New 
Mexico ; and I find no where in my travels any fifty thousand 
square miles of territory surpassing or even equalling Alabama, 
in soil, in climate, in minerals, in productions, and in all the 
natural elements for producing comfort and wealth. Labor, 
honest, true labor, is wanting now in our State, to make her 
not only seventh — as she stood in 1860 — of the States of the 
Union in wealth, but the equal and peer of any and all of 
them in agriculture, in manufactures, in arts, and in all things 
that render a people rich, powerful and great. I do not pro- 
pose to measure the future of Alabama in any other way than 
by reference to her past history and results. God alone, with- 
out figures, can see into and divine the future of countries and 
States. Any information that w^e get or give, that is worth 
having, must be confined to what we ourselves 'see or know, 
or what has happened and been seen or noted by others. Any 
statement in this synopsis that is not founded on authority of 
this kind, may be set aside and counted as naught. 



I will place first on the stand, with the view of ascertaining 
its value as an agricultural region, the Yalley of North Ala- 
bama. 

The Tennessee is the most remarkable river, for its length, 
in our country, for the fertility of the soils of the regions 
though which it passes, and for the manner in which these 
soils are made fertile. Rising in the Valley of Virginia, it 
traverses the fertile Valley of East Tennessee, an extension 
southward to Alabama, of the Valley of Virginia, to Chatta- 
nooga. Here it breaks through the Cumberland and Alle- 
ghany mountains — here from 1,5!J0 to 2,000 feet high — cleav- 
ing a channel through these mountains down to their base, 
wide enough only for the great river to pass through, until it 
reaches the line of the State of Alabama. Here the superin- 
cumbent mountain lying above the limestone, being softer, it 
has widened and washed out an area one hundred and fifty 
miles long, and fifty miles wide, constituting the rich and fer- 
tile Valley of North Alabama. In the centre of this valley 
the river has worked for itself a channel in the limestone, 
generally only wide enough to contain the water of the river 
itself, leaving no flat margin nor muddy swamp to create ma- 
laria and disease. This is a peculiarity of all the waters that 
traverse the elongated valleys running parallel to the Alle- 
ghanies, from New York to Alabama. They have no swamp 
or alluvial formations, and their valleys are elevated table- 
lands, with a top soil of red or black loam, on a foundation of 
limestone. The most southerly extension of- the Valley of 
Virginia, the county of Talladega in the State of Alabama, 
shows a record for health, and a freedom from malarial dis- 
ease, equal to any county in this valley in Virginia, Pennsj'l- 
vania, or New York. The Valley of North Alabama is a 
counterpart, in its general characteristics, of the Valley of 
Virginia and its extensions to New York and Alabama. It 
produces more of agricultural values, however, when properly 
cultivated and tilled, as it was before the war, as can be seen 
from the census reports, than any part of this other great 
valley, except, perhaps, the portion lying in Alabama. But 
in the matter of comparative agricultural capabilities of 
the soils of Alabama, with other sections of our coun- 
try, we will refer to the facts, and let them determine this 



8 

question. I insert here a table, compiled from the Federal 
census of 1860, giving the products of the soil of the counties 
in the Yalley of North Alabama, and of the counties along 
the line of the South & North Alabama Eail Eoad, and of the 
counties at the southern terminus of the road, composing and 
lying in the prairie or cotton belt of the State. I insert the 
county of Augusta, in the Valley of Virginia, in the State of 
Virginia, the richest county in that State in farm valuation. 
This county is an exponent of the productions of this great 
valley, in its largest and most prosperous estate. I insert, 
also, the county of Talladega, the most southerly extension 
of this valley in the State of Alabama. This valley is so sim- 
ilar, in all its characteristic features from New York to Ala- 
bama, to our Valley of North Alabama, and is so well known 
throughout the United States, that a single spot, taken any 
where in this valley and compared with any section of Ala- 
bama similar and like in its characteristic features, will give 
a better idea of that section than any comparison I can make. 
I insert the county of Talladega, Alabama, the most southerly 
extension of this valley, simply for the purpose of demon- 
strating that soils of the same character, and kind, produced 
more money in Alabama, than they did in Virginia or New 
York. I place in this table the counties in which are situated 
the capitals of the great agricultural States of Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois, and also one county in each of these States, the 
richest in farm valuation and in the productions of their soils — 
six counties in all. 



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I place in this table of comparisons the richest and most 
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of farm productions, the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois 
equalled, in 1860, all tli efree States from Maine to Kansas, as 
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12 

In comparing Alabama, and counties in Alabama, with 
these States, or the richest counties in these States, a paral- 
lel is instituted that, if successfully maintained, can not be 
set aside or broken anywhere in this country, or perhaps in 
the world. I go back to 1860, for the purpose of comparing 
the soils of Alabama with those of the other States of our 
Union ; simply because the soils of the South, since then, have 
not been properly cultivated or tilled. It is impossible to ar- 
rive at the character of our soils for productions in any other 
way, as the negro labor here, as will hereafter be shown, is 
now unproductive and unreliable. We will examine first the 
county of Augusta, in the Valley of Virginia, and compare it 
with the county of Talladega, in the State of Alabama. In 
population, Augusta 27,749, and Talladega 23,520. Acreage 
of Augusta cultivated 224,644, and Talladega 139,892. Value 
of farms $10,997,286 in the county of Augusta, and only 
$3,111,205 in Talladega. The live stock of Augusta was val- 
ued at $1,287,610, that of Talladega $929,590. Augusta had 
31,033 hogs, Talladega had 38,832. Augusta raised 307,402 
bushels of wheat, Talladega onl}^ 81,559. Corn, 752,539 for 
Augusta, and 755,103 for Talladega. Oats, 191,279, and 
64,082. Potatoes, 44,129, and 101,977. Meat crop of Au- 
gusta $254,853, Talladega $243,906. It will be noted that, 
situated in the same valley, nearly seven hundred miles 
apart, these two counties are very nearly equal in their pro- 
ductions, except in wheat and oats. In Indian corn, the Ala- 
bama county is a few thousand bushels ahead. In meat 
product only $11,000 behind. In potatoes, the Alabama 
county is ahead. In hay, the Virginia county is largely 
ahead, producing 21,687 tons, and Talladega only 33 tons. 
Here I will remark that the fodder crop taken care of and 
cured, in the South, and used everywhere as forage, for 
horses and mules, is not tabulated, or recorded in the census 
of 1860. The county of Talladega produced over 7,000 tons 
of fodder. Fodder, as cured in the South, answers all the 
uses and purposes of hay, and but little of it was saved any- 
where in the North. As the census has omitted it, I will 
make no further mention here of this important Southern 
product. The cotton crop of Talladega, 18,243 bales, was 
worth $729,720, or more than three-fourths of the entire crop 



13 

values of the conntj of Augusta, Virginia, valued at $944,619, 
The total valuation of Talladega products was $1,258,168. 
The acres cultivated in Virginia 224,644, in Alabama 139,892. 
The Alabama county produces Avell all the other products of 
Virginia, besides a cotton crop, which the Virginian could 
not raise. The cultivation of other crops, except wheat, in- 
terferes but little with the cultivation of cotton. The rocks, 
the soil, the water, are identical ; but the climate and pro- 
ductions are different. Here lies the secret of our agricultu- 
ral success ; and I make this comparison here simply for the 
purpose of exhibiting this fact. Both were cultivated largely 
with slave labor. We will now take up the county of Madi- 
son, in the Valley of North Alabama, and compare it with 
counties in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, in 1860. We will 
compare it first with the county of Sangamon, the capital, 
and richest agricultural county in Illinois. 

The farms of Sangamon were valued at $11,886,486, of 
Madison $o,078,806, or about half that of the Illinois county. 
Sangamon had 62,917 hogs, Madison 49,723. Wheat, San- 
gamon 303,747 bushels. Madison 43,613 bushels. Sangamon 
raised nearly four times as much corn as Madison ; but corn 
was the crop of the county of Sangamon, and cotton was the 
crop of the county of Madison. The corn crop of Madison 
was 37^ bushels for each soul, that of Ohio 31|, tliat of Indi- 
ana 47 3-5, that of Illinois 45 1. The meat crop of Madison 
was $8 33 to each person, of Ohio $6 29, of Indiana $7 27, 
and of Illinois $8 84. The cattle and hog crop raised by the 
South, before the war, is a matter that the new millions that 
now inhabit our country, can not understand. They deny 
roundly and flatly, the fact, well known before the war, that 
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, produced more meat, to 
the man, than did Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. The figures of 
the census prove this, and it is well known that no farmer in 
Alabama, before the war, ever bought meat, bread or any- 
tliing, except iron, sugar, coffee and salt. The stock cattle of 
the South, in 1860, counting Delaware and Maryland with the 
Northern States, was 8,078,072. In the North and West, 
from Maine to Kansas, only 5,596,766. Swine, Southern 
States, 20,238,887. All the other States and Territories, in- 
cluding Maryland, Delaware and the Pacific States, had only 



14 

13,273,980 head of swine. I place these extracts here, from 
the Federal census of 1860, for the information of people 
who knew nothing of the South before the war, and can 
know nothing now, except from books and results of the agri- 
cultural capabilities of the soils of the South then ; and who 
judge the capabilities of our soils by what they see now. 
Since I have been writing my book on Alabama, I have met 
no man from the States of the North, who has seen our agri- 
culture, only since the war, who will admit, or can be made 
to believe, that the cotton States, Georgia, Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi, fed themselves before the war, and raised more of 
agricultural values than did the States of Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois. Such was the fact ; and though these States have 
twenty years the start, with good government, and a steady 
reliance on ourselves, we will stand even with them, again, in 
less than twenty years. Madison county, Alabama, produced 
90,754 bushels of potatoes. Sangamon, Illinois, only 73,644 
bushels. Of peas and beans, an important food crop of the 
South, and everywhere, where men do hard labor, Saugamon 
produced only 466 bushels, while Madison produced 33,595 
bushels. The acres cultivated in the Illinois county 314,271, 
in Madison 214,509. The per capita productions of the soil 
were— of Sangamon $49 00, of Madison $57 70. If the fod- 
der crop of Madison, amounting to 9,883 tons, was counted in 
this table, the difference in her favor would be greater. The 
total value of the crop products of Sangamon was $1,571,163, 
of Madison $1,520,1385. It was the cotton product of the 
Alabama county, as can be seen from these tables, that made 
this difference. The table is before the reader, and he can 
examine it further, if he wishes. Would that the agricultural 
actualities of the soils of Alabama, were tabulated and indeli- 
bly engraved on the intellects and souls of the people of Ala- 
bama, and of the new people everywhere, who inhabit our 
country now. In my work on Alabama, I compare our 
county of Madison, in the Valley of North Alabama, with 
Wayne, the richest county in Indiana, in 1860. The compar- 
ison is cootained in the table above given, in figures. I am 
a poor hand to convey ideas in words, and I only put 
words in this paper, because I know people will not 
read figures alone. The county of Wayne was then^ 



15 

and is now, the richest agricultural county in Indiana. 
The county of Madison was the richest in aggregate 
productions in the Valley of North Alabama — the popula- 
tion was larger, and more acres were cultivated in this coun- 
ty. The products per cultivated acre in Madison, however, 
was S7 13, and of the whole Valley was $7 18. In the table 
prepared for my work on Alabama, in which a measurement 
is made of the comparative value of the soils of the counties 
Alabama, as between themselves, Madison in her per capita 
valuation of products of farming is $62 93, and of the whole 
Valley $63 00 ; agreeing very nearly with the measurement 
per cultivated acre. To save space, I will compare Marion, 
the county in which Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, is 
situated, and "Wayne, the richest in the value of its farms, in 
the State, with Madison. In farm valuation the Indiana 
counties nearly double Madison, being $10,923,429 and 
$11,583,148, and $6,078,806 for Madison. In live stock they 
are almost equal. In hogs they are about equal. Wheat 
and corn, the Indiana counties are ahead, but very nearly 
equal, and even themselves in their products. In peas and 
beans, and potatoes — things raised from the soil, and for the 
purpose of feeding men only, the Alabama county is ahead. 
It is a remarkable fact, that in peas and beans, potatoes, 
turnips, and small crops of this kind, raised only to feed peo- 
ple, the South always exceeded the West and North. Ala- 
bama raised in 1860, more potatoes than the State of Illinois, 
or 5,931,563, and Illinois 5,846,544. Excepting New York, 
she raised more peas and beans than all the free States from 
Maine to Kansas. These things will all appear hereafter, in 
a table by themselves, and I will use no more words on this 
subject. In the aggregate value of the products of the soils, 
the two Indiana counties, Marion and Wayne, were respec- 
tively $887,061 and $867,541. Madison $1,529,685, or nearly 
equal to the combined value of the farm products of two of 
the richest agricultural counties in the State of Indiana. 

We will start now on the line of the road at the northern 
boundary of this State, and examine and compare the char- 
acteristics and productions of the sections and counties as 
they come — 

First comes the county of Limestone, lying also in the Val- 



16 

ley of North Alabama. I will measure this county, also, by 
figures and results. The population of this county, as can be 
seen from the tables, is less than three-fifths that of Madison, 
whilst the aggregate value of her products was $976,656, or 
nearly two-thirds that of Madison. The 'per capita produc- 
tions of the county of Limestone was $63 08 in 1860, or 
more than double that of the counties of Marion and Wayne, 
in the State of Indiana. An allowance should be made, in 
the tables of population, to the county of Marion, for the 
non-producers in the city of Indianapolis. I have deducted 
the entire population of this city, as non-producers, and do so 
for all the large cities in the West ; but I have made no de- 
duction, anywhere, for any city of non-producers, in the 
South. The fact is so plain, and so patent, that the soils of 
Alabama far exceeded those of the West and North, in the 
production of agricultural values, when our soils were prop- 
erly cultivated and tilled, that there is but little need of re- 
finement in argument to convince any mind, which can or 
will be convinced, by reasoning or facts. The per centage of 
total population engaged in agriculture, or going into the 
fields, in the different States of the Union in 1860, is pub- 
lished in a table hereafter. Alabama 60, Georgia 57^, Mis- 
sissippi 61.^, Illinois 50|, Indiana 59, and Ohio 46^ per cent. 
It is very evident, that agriculture was the business of these 
States, all alike, at that time. More of the people of Ohio 
were engaged in other pursuits in the three Western States, 
and more of the people in Georgia in the three Southern 
States named. The army of non-producers, composed of 
merchants, lawyers, transporters, and other professions, me- 
chanics, and others, always incident and necessary to a 
healthy condition and working of agriculture in any civilized 
country on earth, were found in each of these States, organ- 
ized in numbers sufficient only to carry on the business out- 
side of the fields, and amounted to one-third of the population 
in each and all of these States. The remainder were en- 
gaged in pursuits not strictly agricultural, or incident to agri- 
culture. In Ohio 20 per cent, were thus engaged, in Indiana 
7|, in Illinois 16, in Georgia 9^, in Alabama 6|, in Missis- 
sippi, 3^. I make this explanation, thus early, and in advance 
of the tables on this subject, that the reader may compare, 



17 

in his own mind, the relative value of the per capita measure- 
ments I am making in counties in these States. A per cap- 
ita measurement of agricultural values, measured by total of 
population, as far as Illinois and Ohio are concerned, in com- 
parison with Alabama, should have a per centage added, 
equal to the greater proportion of people engaged in other 
pursuits than agriculture, or things incident thereto.- It 
amounted in Illinois to 9^ per cent., in Ohio to 13^ per cent, 
to be added to their per capita value of total population, 
when compared with Alabama. 

By reference to the table, it will be seen that this county 
produced, before the war, everything requisite and needful to 
the comfort and sustenance of man. She raised 38^ bushels 
of corn, and 11.34 dollars worth of meat. The per capita 
corn product of the Western States, including Kentucky and 
Missouri, in 1860, was 45.56 bushels. The corn crop of the 
West is its principal crop, and here it is only secondary, 
and raised only for consumption at home, and still this 
county of Limestone raised nearly as many bushels of corn 
to each head or soul, as did the granary, as it is called, of 
this Continent; nearly double the amount of meat to the 
head raised in Ohio, besides planting and raising $604,600 
worth of cotton, in gold. This gold crop was all profit, before 
the war, in the county of Limestone. The farmers here 
raised everything they needed for support on their farms, and 
this gold crop was added, each year, to the permanent wealth, 
the comfort, the luxury, the refinement of the county ; and it 
was well expended ; for no people, in any county, in any State 
in the Union, enjoyed more of the comforts of life, than did 
the people of this county of Alabama. I will not use the 
stereotyped phrase, set up and printed in every land adver- 
tising sheet in the country — " Healthy, well watered, and fer- 
tile, producing, etc., etc., etc., all the productions, etc., etc., 
etc., of value," in reference to this county, or any county of 
the State of Alabama, and especially the counties along and 
contiguous to the South & North Alabama Rail Road. The 
health and comfort of any region that has been long inhabit- 
ed by man, may be measured by the progress of that region 
in population, prosperity and wealth. The progress of Ala- 
2 



18 

bama, from tlie date of her first settlement, down to the date 
■when she blindly and unfortunately jumped into ourjate civil 
war, was equalled only, in our country, by the State of Illi- 
nois. We will now leave the county of Limestone, and cross 
the Tennessee river — next to the Coosa in Alabama, the most 
beautiful river in the v/orld. The town of Decatur, in the 
county of Morgan, is the northern terminus of the South & 
North Alabama Rail Road. This county also lies in the Val- 
ley of North Alabama, and its agricultural capabilities are 
fairly and well measured in the tables heretofore given. By 
reference to the tables, it will be seeu that the live stock, 
meat and grain products of this county were greater, in pro- 
portion to population, than the counties of Madison and 
Limestone, and that the cotton product was less. This came 
from two causes — First, the want of transportation, before 
the completion of the Memphis & Charleston Rail Road, in 
1857 ; Second, whilst the farmers in the cotton belt of Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama, raised all the meat they wanted for 
their own use, still they did not raise enough for the mer- 
chants and other non-producers in the cities and towns. The 
rich valleys and coves in the counties south of the Tennessee 
river raised corn and hogs as easily, and as well, as they did 
in Tennessee, and carried on the business of stock and hog 
driving to supply the deficiency as stated above, in the cities 
and towns of the black or cotton belt. The county of Mor- 
gan was largely engaged in this business, even up to the be- 
ginning of the war, and made but little cotton, which is ever, 
and always, the best paying crop in Alabama, token people 
make their food crops at home. The people of this county 
lived well,'''and had all the comforts of life, before the war. 
We have measured the capabilities of the soils of the Yalley 
of North Alabama, by actual results, and by figures ; the only 
method of measuring the value of the soils of the South at 
this time. There is no agriculture in the South at this time, 
to measure the character of her soil by, and it will continue 
to grow worse, until white labor is brought from elsewhere. 

We will leave now this interesting valley of North Ala- 
bama, with its array of splendid facts and crop results to 
point to, and enter upon the description of the mountain re- 
gion of Alabama, as it is called, extending from the valley of 



19 

North Alabama to within twelve miles of the city of Mont- 
gomery. There are no mountains in Alabama where it is 
crossed by the South and North Alabama Rail Road. 
There are ridges and lines here that mark the places in the 
strata occupied by the mountains of Tennessee, Virginia and 
Pennsylvania. The rocks and minerals are all here, however, 
precisely as they occur in the Sta^tes above mentioned. Com- 
mencing at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, twelve 
miles from Montgomery, the country rises gradually from an 
elevation of one hundred and seventy-five feet above tide 
water, to the summit of this mountain at Jemison, to an ele- 
vation of seven hundred and six feet. This mountain divides 
here, as it does everywhere from New York to Alabama, the 
freestone and limestone formation ; and is also the south- 
eastern boundary line, as elsewhere, of the minerals of val- 
ue, of the Appalachian chain of mountains. We cross over 
from here to the top of the Sand Mountain, the northwestern 
boundary of the coal measures of Alabama, and the southern 
boundary of the valley of North Alabama, a succession of 
ridges and elongated valleys, rising nowhere except at the 
summit of the Sand Mountain, more than 700 feet above the 
sea level. Before the completion of the Selma, Rome and 
Dalton rail road, in 1856, or only a few years before the war, 
this mountain region of Alabama, as it is called, covering an 
area of nearly 15,000 square miles, or nearly one third of our 
State, had, practically, no agricultural market at all. Taking 
Birmingham as a centre, it was sixty miles to Tuskaloosa, an 
indifi^erent river town ; one hundred and twenty miles to Tus- 
cumbia, Decatur and Guntersville, on the Tennessee river, 
also bad markets ; seventy miles to Gadsden, on the Coosa, 
another very bad market town, and one hundred and twenty 
miles to Montgomery and Selma, on the Alabama river. It 
is evident, without ai-gument, that a region so situated, could 
make but little headway in agriculture. The figures given in 
the census of 1860, may not measure fairly their agricultural 
capabilities. But I will give them just as they are. This re- 
gion was cultivated all over with results, as will be seen in 
the tables above given. We will resume our description with 
the counties of Blount, Walker and Winston, the first coun- 
ties on the line of the rail road south of the valley of North 



20 

Alabama. Winston, as well as the greater portion of Blount 
county, lies on the plateau, or top, of Sand Mountain. The 
per capita productions of these two counties was small before 
the war, as compared with the great and rich counties of 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and the splendid agriculture of 
the other counties in the State of Alabama. Only two other 
counties in the State show la record as poor as Winston and 
Blount. But we are not comparing the agriculture of coun- 
ties in Alabama with themselves, as it is well known that the 
agriculture here was the poorest in Alabama before the war^ 
with the exceptions above noted. But if the reader will only 
take the trouble, to examine the value of the crop products of 
counties in the States of the West, last above referred to, he 
will find that many counties there produced less of agricultu- 
ral values, to the head, than did the counties of Winston and 
Blount, producing respectively, as can be seen by reference to 
table No. 2, of strictly crop values $^0 25 and $18 22 per 
head. The eastern and southeastern portions of Blount 
county consist mainly of Blountsville and Murphey's Valleys. 
Limestone constitutes the agricultural soils of these valleys. 
Elevated here almost to a level with the surrounding moun- 
tains, these two valleys, with their lich agricultural soils, the 
bright sparkling waters of the Warrior river, rising in and 
running through them, a crisp, clear and healthy atmosphere 
floating over them always, are fitly and most properly styled 
the Switzerland of Alabama. The crop products here were 
greater than in other portions of the county, but were con- 
fined mainly to meat and breadstuffs, articles giving plenty 
and comfort, but little money in this, or any other section of 
Alabama. Walker countj^ lies south of Winston, and south- 
westwardly from Blount county. Its agricultural features 
are more varied than those of Blount and Winston, and in- 
clude cotton, the money staple of Alabama. The value of 
this product to the agriculture of Alabama cannot be more 
readily demonstrated anywhere in the State, than by an ex- 
amination and comparison in table No. 2, of the crop values 
of the three counties, Winston, Walker and Blount, all lying 
in what is called the mountain region of Alabama. It will be 
seen that the per capita value of the crop products of Walker 
county is $35 00, and of Winston and Blount only $20 75 and 



21 

$18 22, This difference arises mainly from the fact that the 
aggregate cotton crop of Walker, with a little over half the 
population of the two counties of Blount and "Winston, was 
double the combined cotton crop of these last named two 
counties. So it is always, and ever will be in Alabama, cot- 
ton is the most valuable crop produced on the soil of Ala- 
bama. Breadstuffs must be produced in amount sufficient to 
feed the agriculturist in Alabama, but if he wishes to make 
money he must follow the indications of nature, and culti- 
vate all the cotton he can consistently with the above requis- 
ition for food. The soil of these counties, as of all the coun- 
ties in the State, produces cotton well. It is a plant of pecu- 
liar value, the successful cultivation of which is confined by 
our Maker to the soils of the South, and any system of agri- 
culture in Alabama that discards cotton will, and ought to, 
fail. Lying, as these counties do, on the elevated plateau, or 
mountain plain of Alabama, they are healthy ; water is excel- 
lent everj^where. 

There is a feature of this section, the discussion of which 
here will somewhat mar the order of my book. I allude to 
the German colony of Cullman, but as I have already taken 
the trouble to examine personally into the condition and 
prospects of this colony, I will consider it right here. 

A contract was entered into by the rail road company with 
John G. Cullman, Esq., in the fall of 1872, for the sale and 
settlement of the alternate sections of land granted by Con- 
gress to aid in the construction of this rail road, and included 
in the area lying around the present town of Cullman, of 20 
by 30 miles. Mr. Cullman selected this locality on account 
of the pecuHarity of climate and soil, and the almost entire 
absence of old settlers and the consequent availability of the 
entire body of even or reserved sections of land for the pur- 
pose of entry and settlement under the homestead laws of 
the United States. He had here under his influence and dis- 
posal over half a million acres of unoccupied lands, not rich, 
as the records in this book will show, when compared with 
other soils in Alabama, but with peculiarities of cHmate, soil 
and surroundings exactly suited, as I find now, for the estab- 
lishment of a colony of German laboring people. 

The soil of this mountain plateau, about one hundred miles 



22 

loDg from east to west and thirty miles wide from north .to 
south, comes from and lies on the lower strata of the coal 
formations of this State, and is peculiar to this section and 
differs in its constituent elements fi'om any of the other soils 
in the State. The strata or rocks of the upper coal measures 
produce the top soils in the remainder of the coal regions of 
Alabama. My knowledge of the analyses and natures of soils 
is not sufficient to enable me to point out wherein these soils 
differ. But there is a difference, and the difference depends 
upon the character of the exact strata that happens, in any 
given locality, to be on top, or to constitute the surface of the 
earth. Mr. Cullman and those in this colony imagine that 
they have here soils peculiarly and specially adapted to grape 
culture. In my travels through this section, before and since 
the war, I found the old settlers scattered here and there rais- 
ing everywhere good crops of corn, wheat and cotton. To 
an indifferent observer the soils all looked alike, but to the 
practiced eye of these old farmers there was a difference, de- 
pending, as I have since found out, on the geological condi- 
tions above stated. The difference is but a shade over this 
whole area, it is true, and though it may have no influence on 
grape, or cotton, or fruit culture — and I think it will not— it 
will always appear in the cultivation of the cereals. In my 
recent visit to this colony, made entirely with a view of ob- 
taining exact information as to its status and prospects, I 
found at the town of Cullman a population, as stated, of about 
eight hundred souls, and in the colony about three thousand. 
Their number was somewhat of a surprise to me, but there 
was a matter underlying all this, and that was the material 
progress of those already here. I first examined the town 
itself, and found a flouring and corn mill in successful opera- 
tion and doing a good business. I next visited a furniture 
manufactory, and found these people manufacturing furniture 
and selHng it at Cincinnati prices. When I asked the price 
of this, that, and the other article, all new and apparently as 
good as any ever brought to Montgomery for sale, I was sur- 
prised at the low prices, and my mind involuntarily went to 
the auction sales of second-hand furniture at Montgomery, 
for a comparison of prices. I found the workmen themselves 
were all stockholders, and this explained the reason of these 



23 

low prices. The tanneiy and shoe factory I did not visit, 
but* am satisfied that the owner (with a hard name) is doing 
well. I next examined a new three-story brick hotel being 
built by Mr. Fromwalt. In- the basement is the — to these 
people — inevitable lager beer cellar. In this matter of lager 
beer, a person would feel like he was in St. Louis or Cincin- 
nati. Their merchants were doing a thrifty and safe busi- 
ness, not only with their own people, but with the natives 
scattered all over the plateau or mountain plain. One thing 
I did not see, and that was any idlers, loungers, or loafers, 
male or female, large or small, young or old. 

The things described above can be built and seen any 
where, but they must all stand on something outside of the 
city or town. 

I next visited the country, and though I may be wrong, I 
will give here my exact opinion on this, the underlying sub- 
ject of this colony. When this country was all in the woods, 
I knew every hill, every branch, and every plain, as familiarly 
and well as I do the streets and the houses in the city of 
Montgomery. But the changed appearance of every thing 
here now made me feel as if I had never seen the country 
before. It had precisely the same appearance (save that it 
was covered over with timber, grape-vines and undergrowth) 
as the rolling prairies of Nebraska and Kansas. The houses 
of the German settlers, one and two story, double hewed log, 
with their little gardens and parterres, also looked strange. 
I heard a woman directing her children in the German lan- 
guage to run the hogs out of the field. The intonations of 
her voice, and the ejaculations in a foreign and unknown 
tongue, made me feel that I was a long way from home. I 
went into, through, and across their fields, and I found here 
the familiar Indian corn stalk, but as a rule it was planted so 
thick that the crop was a failure. That this was not the fault 
of the climate or soil is very evident, from tjie fact that ad- 
joining fields cultivated by Alabamians had splendid crops of 
corn. The other and small crops cultivated by the Germans 
were more varied than those cultivated by the old settlers. 
But in those cultivated by both, the Alabamians were ahead. 
The German mind is running here on grape culture. From 
their own statements and accounts, and from the exhibits 



24 

made to me, they will succeed here in this business. They 
will succeed perhaps next year in corn product, as this indus- 
trious people will certainly learn from^the^old farmers here 
how to cultivate this soil. In one or two years they will learn 
to invest their surplus labor in cotton, the normal money sta- 
ple of Alabama. Such an exhibition of patient and perse- 
vering ' industry I have never before witnessed in my varied 
and checkered life. 

This colony will succed here ; but in the cultivation of the 
staples heretofore known in Alabama, they must learn from 
the people who have been born and raised on this soil. The 
soil here is not rich, when compared with the soils of eastern 
Kansas, Iowa or Illinois. But these soils are already occu- 
pied now up to, and even beyond the region of no rain fall in 
the west, as will hereafter be seen. These industrious people 
will, by persevering labor, supply^any deficiency in fertility 
in these soils, lying as they do on a subsoil every where reten- 
tive and strong. But no power of man can supply the defi- 
ciency of rain-fall in the new and now unsettled west. The 
rain-fall in Alabama is 59.58 inches ; in the new west only 
14.1 inches. These matters are hereafter fully discussed. 



JEFFEESON COUNTY. 

We come next to the coiinty of Jeflferson, the county in 
which Birmingham is situated. The per capita value of 
merely soil productions of this county nearly equalled those 
of the Tennessee Valley, and exceeded, largely, the richest 
counties in Indiana and Ohio, as can be seen from the tables. 
Jefferson and Shelby, the counties lying south on the South 
& North Alabama Rail Road, are the mineral counties of the 
State. All the coal of any value, mined in the State at pres- 
ent, is taken fro;n these two counties, and the largest and 
most valuable deposits of iron ores. Red and Brown Hema- 
tite, and Black Band, are also found in these two counties. 
Their soils, identical with those of Pennsylvania andjVirginia 
in the bituminous coal regions, are far from being bare o^ 
agricultural value, as we will now see. It would, perhaps* 
not be fair to compare this county with the great and rich 



25 

counties of the West, as in 1860 it had no rail road or con- 
venient market towns ; but as I have laid down the rule to 
measure our soil value by their products in 1860, I will not 
depart from it here. Men living here now, from all parts of 
the North, and here only since the war, and seeing the pau- 
city of the agriculture of this once glorious little county, meet 
ore smilingly, pleasantly, but unbelievingly, when I tell them 
of what our agriculture once was, as compared with that of 
the Western States. The agriculture of this county is scarce- 
ly one-half now, of what it was before the war. I will com- 
pare our county of Jefferson, in detail, (as her j9er capita soil 
products surpassed in value, that of the richest counties of 
Ohio and Indiana,) with Sangamon, the richest agricultural 
county in Illinois. The population of Sangamon, in 1860, 
was 32,274, of Jefferson 11,746, or one-third that of Sanga- 
mon, The value of live stock of Sangamon was $1,926,51.4, 
that of Jefferson $552,195, or one-third that of Sangamon. 
Sangamon had 62,917 hogs, Jefferson 23,561, or a little more 
than one -third as many. Sangamon produced of wheat 
303,747, Jefferson 51,032, or one-sixth as much. Of corn, 
Sangamon raised 3,599,405 bushels, Jefferson 586,785. Peas 
and beans, Jefferson 26,405, Sangamon 466. Jefferson, pota- 
toes 60,158, Sangamon 73,644. Honey, in Jefferson 20,413, 
Sangamon 30,722. Butter, in Jefferson 147,447, in Sangamon 
337,013. Meat crop of Sangamon was $579,160, of Jefferson 
130,861. In meat, corn and wheat, alone, of the above men- 
tioned articles, the Alabama county fails to raise crops in 
proportion to her population. Her corn was more than an 
average for the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, being 50 
bushels for each soul, and the average for these States being 
only 48 1-6 bushels. Her meat crop was $11 09, and the 
average for these three States only $7 32, whilst her 4,940 
bales of cotton (little bags of gold,) brought her per capita 
average to $48, or within one per cent., as can be seen from 
the tables of that of the great and rich county of Sangamon, 
Illinois. 

The total value of agricultural products was — for Sanga- 
mon $1,571,163 ; for Jefferson $576,648. The population of 
Sangamon 32,274, of Jefferson 11,746. Valuation of farms of 
Sangamon $11,866,486, of Jefferson $1,219,863. Acres culti- 



26 

Tated in Sangamon 314,271, in Jefferson 75,125. Here in 
Alabama, land worth only $1,219,263, produced more than 
one-third of the agricultural values grown on laud valued in 
Illinois at ten times this amount ; or three dollars in land, in 
Jefferson county, Alabama, produced as much money as ten 
dollars in land in Illinois, and if the reader will take the 
trouble to examine the census tables for 1860, he will find 
that, as a rule, land in Alabama produced three times the 
amount of agricultural values, according to valuation, that lands 
did in the West. There is this difference in farming at the 
West, and at the South. The surplus labor of the farmer at 
the South, over and above a support, was converted into cot- 
ton, which was gold always on the spot. " The farmer in Jef- 
ferson county always made a support on his farm, before the 
war, and there was no necessity for him to go junketing, or 
peddling the products of his surplus labor, to get gold. His 
banker was, and always is, in the cotton field at home ; and 
never failed to pay gold on demand. When he plants his 
food crops, he plants at the same time a little seed of gold, 
and in due time, and with care, it has grown into a great tree^ 
and he has only to pluck the pods, and he has gold in his 
hands. There is no product of the West readily convertible 
into gold. Only two per cent, of their breadstuffs was ex- 
ported in 1869, four in 1870, four in 1871, and four in 1872. 
The total exports of the census year lb:60, were $335,894,385 ; 
only $27,590,298, or 7.4 per cent, of this amount, was bread- 
stuff products of the West, and over $200,000,090, was cotton 
product of the South. From 1861, to 1872, the exports of 
breadstuffs was greater than before the war, and there was 
greater prosperity in the West. From 1864 to 1868, Kussia 
exported to Great Britain, the only bread importing country 
in Europe, only $47,376,809, and the United States $127,047,- 
126. From 1868 to 1872, Eussia exported to Great Britain 
$117,967,022, and the United States only $116,862,380 ; and 
the fluctuations and uncertainties of the European market, 
created a panic in 1873; and since then, as stated in the re- 
port of the Windom Transportation Committee of the United 
States Senate, a bushel of corn in some parts of the West, is 
worth less than a bushel of coal ; and is burned there for 
fuel. The argument is also made, in this Keport, that Russia, 



27 

after supplying England, even threatens to supply breadstuffs 
to Portland, Boston and New York. Here then, is the differ- 
ence between the surplus products of the South, and of the 
West. The one is always gold, on the spot ; the other may 
be gold, or it may rot on the ground. This matter is fully 
discussed, in my forthcoming book, but as this is only a 
synopsis, I simply refer to it here. 

I have compared our little county of Jefferson with Sanga- 
mon, the richest agricultural county in the richest agricultural 
State in the Union ; and as has been seen heretofore, she stands 
equal to that county, not only in the per capita value of the 
products of the soil, but in every thing else produced on the 
farm. By an examination of the census, it will be seen that 
this county produced as many bushels of corn in 1860, in ag- 
gregate amount, as one-third of the counties in Illinois ; and 
as much meat as fifty-five of the one hundred and two coun- 
ties of that State. Such is not the fact now, I will admit ; but 
it is comforting to our people to know that in times gone by, 
when properly cultivated and tilled, our soil products com- 
pared well with those of the great and rich States of the 
west. The county of Jefferson lies on the elevated plateau, 
which represents in Alabama the great mountains of Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia and Tennessee. But the rough, rugged 
features of these mountains are all washed away here. The 
water, the rocks, and the soil, the ridges and the valleys are 
identical with those of the bituminous coal region of the 
States above mentioned. The products of her soil are com- 
pared and mathematically measured in the tables above given. 
I have but little data, on the climate and health of this county, 
other than that derived from observation. 

I publish here a thermometrical table, taken at a farm-house 
near Newcastle in this county. The chmatic record published 
from the State of Alabama is generally that of our cities, and 
always indicates a greater degi-ee of heat than is found in the 
country and on the farms. 



28 




TIME OF DAT. 



A. M. 


Noon. 


P. M. 


P. M. 


Eight. 


Twelve. 


Four. 


Ten. 


78 


88 


90 


76 


76 


88 


90 


78 


78 


88 


83 


74 


69 


72 


74 


70 


69 


77 


78 


74 


80 


85 


88 


78 


80 


87 


82 


74 


76 


88 


'90 


74 


80 


86 


88.30 


74 


70 


81 


82 


76 


70 


82 


82 


70 


71 


80 


74 


70 


76 


85 


80 


72 


72 


79 


76 


74 


73 


75 


74 


72 


74 


82 


84 


74 


75 


85 


83 


74 


77 


84 


84 


73 


74 


85 


80 


72 


75 


84 


82 


72 


77 


82 


84 


72 


76 


85 


88 


72 


76 


84 


88 


76 


76 


83 


S8 


73 


74 


83.30 


86 


93 


76 


88 


89 




79 


92 


91 


80 


79 


88 


91 


79 


79 


99 


91 


79 


83 


89 


91 


79 


81 






80 


80 


83 


85 


76 


81 


88 


88 


81 


81 


90 


90 


80 


81 


88 


88 


76 


76 


86 


84 


72 


74 


86 


85 


72 


76 


90 


90 


78 


76 


90 


91 


82 


81 


90 







The above is the only record I have been able to obtain from 
a farm-house in this region, and I have taken this while writing 
this paper. The nights are always cool, and the days are 
never hot. There is not a swamp or stagnant pool of water 
in this whole county, or any other cause for sickness or mala- 
rial disease. Well watered, and lying on the summit of this 
elevated plateau, with a soil easily tilled, and capable of be- 
ing cultivated every where, with a crop and climatic record as 



29 

given above, this county, as a home of the industrious, agri- 
cultural white man, has no superior in this or any other State. 
I will hereafter refer to the minerals of this county. 



SHELBY COUNTY. 

Shelby, the next county south of Jefferson, lies also on the 
elevated plateau, or so called mountain region of Alabama. 
Its topographical and agricultural features, its surface, its soil, 
and its rocks, are identical with those of Pennsylvania and 
the other States along the Alleghanies north. The Valley of 
Virginia terminates in this county, and is as rich here in Ala- 
bama in the production of crop values, as any where north. 
And so are the other elongated limestone valleys composing 
the principal agricultural features of this county. There are 
no swamps in this county or causes for malarial disease ; and 
the climatic record is nearly the same as that of Jefferson. 
Its crop record is also nearly the same. In fact, these two 
counties may be considered as one. The next county, south, 
is the county of Baker ; but as it has been formed from Shel- 
by, Perry and Autauga, since the war, and does not appear in 
the census of 1860, I will take no notice of its county lines, or 
of the county by name. But will proceed with the discussion 
of the old county of Autauga, extending from near Jemison, 
on the summit of the Blue Ridge mountains, to the Alabama 
river, opposite to the city of Montgomery — a distance of nearly 
fifty miles along the railroad. We enter now, a country pe- 
culiar in itself, and differing from any country in Alabama. 
Though the old county Autauga, covered most of this region, 
I will first describe it as a section, without regard to county 
lines. 

As heretofore stated, Jemison is situated on the top of the 
Blue Ridge mountains. At this point, the summit is low, and 
the mountain here is broken up and fast sinking away to a 
plain. About one mile south of Jemison is a high knob, the 
outlier and the southern end of this mountain. We will take 
the reader to the top of this knob and let him look on, while 
we describe one of the most interesting regions in Alabama. 
We will suppose, first, the heavy growth of timber to be cut 



30 

away, so that we can see over a vast region, as one can any 
where on the plains in the West. The beholder sees here 
that he is standing on the apex or summit of a great plain, 
sinking rapidly, regularly and smoothly away from its eastern, 
southern and western sides to the Coosa, Alabama and Ca- 
haba rivers. At his feet rise three little streams or branches. 
The one, the Yellow Leaf, strikes boldly to the east, and cut- 
ting through the here broken up range of the Blue Ridge 
mountains, enters the Coosa river, above the great falls made 
by the forced passage of that river, through the east bound- 
ing mountain, from New York to Alabama, of the Valley of 
Virginia, extended into Alabama. On the west, Mahan's 
creek runs rapidly away to the Gahaba river, whilst the little 
streams running south, southeast and southwest, fall into the 
Coosa and Alabama rivers. The streams running east fall 
rapidly over rough, broken rocks, to the falls of the Coosa 
river ; those running south-east, south and south-west, run 
smoothly over pebbly beds of white water-worn quartz ; at 
first appearing like silver threads, and afterwards gaining in 
volume and bearing upon their bosoms the pearly white foam 
of the sparkling, clear waters from the last of the granite hills 
of the great Appalachian chain of mountains, they mingle 
their sweet, pure waters with the great river of Alabama. 
These streams, as they flow from the pores of these, here 
broken up and smoothly rounded freestone mountains, fall 
six hundred feet before they reach the Alabama, an average 
of nearly fifteen feet to the mile ; yet there are no rapids, 
nor are there any shoals, but a strong, clear running current 
all the way down. To the south-west is seen the once beau- 
tiful city of Marion, on the borders of the great prairie- belt of 
Alabama. Immediately south is the commercial city of Selma, 
on the Alabama river, and also on the border of the great 
prairie-belt, and from our elevation, appearing just at our 
feet, though forty miles away ; south-esat is the city of Mont- 
gomery — the capital city, and once the pride of Alabama. 
Whilst still further east, is heard the rough, rugged roar of 
the Coosa, falling through the mountains, to the city of We- 
tumpka. Beyond the cities of Marion, Selma and Montgom- 
ery, lies the great prairie- belt of Alabama, stretching across 
the whole State, upon which, before the war, was planted and 



31 

cultivated, the tree of gold, wliicli enricbed, then, our beloved 
Alabama. 

Cut away, on the fourth day of July, 1860, the stately yel- 
low pine and the splendid other growth which covered over 
this slowly sinking plain of forty miles square, and standing 
on this knob, near the exact center of our State, look, reader, 
upon a scene of agriculture such as the world never saw, and 
I fear will never see again. Never see again? Because the 
negro will not cultivate this soil, shall the balmy mountain air 
that gently floats along this mountain plain, fan no laboring 
Anglo-Saxon cheek ? Shall the sweet, freestone water, that 
gushes from every pore of this long extended range, quench 
no Anglo-Saxon thirst ? Are there no more Daniel Pratts, 
from the grand old Granite State, to touch these limpid 
streams and turn them into power ? Look across the Ala- 
bama river, over the broad extended plains, where grew the 
fleecy tree of gold. The brightly sparkling, limpid waters of 
the region at our feet, are not running here. Cut down deep 
into the dark, black limestone soil, flow the sluggish creeks— 
and shallow seap weDs furnished all the drinking water found 
in 1860 here. Houses, fences, farms and cultivated fields, in 
one connected chain, cover this region over, and wealth, 
boundless wealth, is seen every where. 

There stood upon this Hmestone soil, in July of that census 
year, 14,374,052 bushels of Indian corn, 644,911 bales of cot- 
ton, and 654,787 hogs or head of swine. In July of the 
last census year, there was on this identical soil, only 
6,279,843 bushels of Indian corn, z59,0l9 bales of cotton, and 
16o,396 hogs or head of swine. This country, now. without 
any fences to mark the boundary lines of the rich, half culti- 
vated fields, is marked with poverty, want and ruin every- 
where. The purely Hmpid waters, from beneath the moun- 
tains across the river, gush out, now, from deep artesian wells, 
any and everywhere, all over this broad, extended prairie 
plain; and there is no want of drinking water now. The 
miasmatic, disease producing clouds, hang only along the 
slow running, sluggish streams, as they were wont to do, in 
the decade before the last. The gentle showers come, and 
the vagrant weeds grow as rankly now as they did before the 



32 

war. What then is the matter here ? Ah, that is the ques- 
tion we are now finding out ! 

I am warned by the accumulating pages I have already 
written, that space will not be allowed to describe these in- 
teresting regions further. But I will show by results what 
they once were, and how fertile are the soils, when properly 
cultivated and tilled, of the rounded Autauga plain and prai- 
rie belt of the State. In my more extended work, I will take 
this subject up, step by step, and describe this section well. 

The county of Autauga, representing as well the plain of 
Autauga, as named by myself, produced in 1860 more of crop 
values, as can be seen from the tables, than any county 
passed over as yet, by the South & North Alabama Rail Road, 
except Limestone. Look along the columns for this county, 
and it will be seen that nothing is wanting for the enjoyment 
and comfort of man. There is no county in the West, or no 
county anywhere, with which to compare this county, in the 
peace, plenty and comfort enjoyed by this people before the 
war. The soil thej cultivated, the water they drank, the air 
they breathed, and the comfort they enjoyed, taken all in all, 
is found no where else in our country. But that has all 
passed away now. Everything is gone, but the country, the 
air, and the water. I hope the reader will look along the 
columns in the tables, relating to this county, and spare me 
the space, and the trouble of comparing this county with any 
of the rich counties of the West. We will now cross over 
the Alabama river to the county of Montgomery^ Ijiug in the 
prairie belt ; and though, as can be seen from the tables, its 
per capita did not average with the whole prairie belt, an 
analysis, and comparison of her crop values, shall answer for 
the productions of the whole. The products of the soil of 
the richest counties in the West, are too poor to compare this 
county with. Butler county, Ohio, shows the best record of 
any county in the West. We will see how our county of 
Montgomery compares with this great and rich county, in 
the production of crop values, in 1860. In population, Mont- 
gomery was 35,904, Butler 35,840 ; only 64 difference. Acres 
cultivated, Montgomery 257,602, Butler 207,964. Value of 
farms, Montgomery $9,888,964, Butler $19,0i9,044, or double 
that of Montgomery. Live stock, Montgomery $1,748,273, 



33 

Butler $1,333,592. Here the Alabama county is ahead. 
Hogs, Montgomery 63,134, Butler 51,640, meat crop or ani- 
mals slaughtered, or sold for slaughter, Montgomery $336,915, 
Butler $318,274. It will be seen liere, that the cattle and 
meat crop, in these two counties, with nearl}?^ equal popula- 
tion, is nearly the same, Montgomery leading the Ohio 
county, almost the same in each. Wheat, Montgomery raised 
but Httle, only 6,317 bushels ; Butler 682,823. Wheat in the 
West, is what cotton is in the South, especiall}^ in the cotton 
belt of the South. Corn, Montgomery 1,586,480 bushels, 
Butler 2,396,323. These last figures will surprise nobody 
more than the new people of the West, who look upon Ala- 
bama, now, as only a cotton field for the grain of the West. 
But as heretofore stated, the county of Montgomery is not 
an average of the counties of this prairie belt ; and the tale I 
am telhng, now, will apply equally well any and everywhere, 
all over this ten thousand square miles. Of rye, oats, buck- 
wheat, and barlej^, Montgomery produced but little, as corn 
serves a better purpose. Peas and beans, next to potatoes 
the most important small crop for food, Montgomery pro- 
duced 32,206 bushels, Butler only 733 bushels. The matter 
of the paucity of the production of peas and beans in the 
West, surprises me more than anj^thing else. Pork and 
beans is the western laborers strongest diet, just as it is for 
the laborer in the South. This important article of food is 
imported there from New York, and the States of the East. 
In potatoes, Montgomery is largely ahead, (there is evi- 
dently a mistake in this article, as it appears in the census, 
and I have taken the liberty of correcting this mistake), pro- 
ducing 235,233 bushels, Butler only 97,734 bushels. It is a 
matter of remark, that in all the small crops raised to feed 
jjeople, the South was alwaj^s ahead of the North. In the 
small crops raised to feed animals, the North was always 
ahead. This arises from the fact that it was necessary to 
feed cattle and hogs, and other animals, for a longer period, 
and to a greater extent, in the North and West, than in the 
South. It is also clear that the question of short feeding, 
was the reason that the South had so many more stock cat- 
tle and hogs before the war, than the States of the North and 
3 



34 

West. The wool crop of Montgomery was 18,448 pounds, of 
Butler 9,389. There is evidently some unexplained reason 
for this short crop of wool, as I see that Franklin county, 
Ohio, raised 64,494 pounds, and Sangamon, 111., 15,716 pounds. 
Montgomery raised 10,662 pounds of honey, and Butler 3,965. 
The crop of honej^ at the South was always larger tlian at 
the North. Montgomery raised 163,798 pounds of butter, 
and Butler 537,344 pounds. This measures coiTectly, and 
fairly, the average ratio in which this article was made, in 
Alabama and in the States of the West, before the war. We 
raised no butter, nor anything else in the South, to eat, that 
was for sale. Eveiything raised in a cotton region, was con- 
verted on the spot, into cotton — the only banker that never 
suspends specie payments, and ahvays pays gold on demand 
for everything to eat raised on the farm. The recognition of 
the hay crop of the census, as a product of the soil, and not 
of the fodder crop, as taken and cured at the South, and 
used everywhere as a substitute for and in preference to hay, 
is an error that should be corrected. The fodder crop of 
Montgomery county was over 15,000 tons, and worth as much 
or more, here, than the same number of tons of hay in the 
West. Neither county did much in the way of manufactures, 
as can be seen from the table. We have said nothing, yet, of 
the cotton crop of Montgomery county, amounting to 58,880 
bales. It has been seen that in everything to eat, or to feed 
people on, except wheat and corn, the county of Montgom- 
ery was not only equal to, but ahead of, Butler county, 
Ohio, the richest county in the West. Experience has shown 
the farmers of the South, since cotton has become an article 
of commerce, that to economize labor, and produce cotton 
cheapest, the cultivation of a corn crop is a necessary com- 
plement, to utilize the labor needed at times for working and 
picking promptly, and in the nick of time, a cotton crop. 
The labor engaged solely in the jjroduction of a cotton crop, 
could never pick it out ; and much of the crop would be lost. 
Nor could the rotation in the times of planting and cultiva- 
tion be so arranged as to employ the labor cultivating cotton 
alone, profitably, each and every day. Hence it has been 
found, and it was the practice everywhere where cotton was 
the principal crop, to cultivate corn, and enough only, ta 



35 

raise all the cotton farmer's meat and bread. You may look 
through the crop records for the last fifty years, all over the 
South, and such has been the rule, everywhere. Even the 
State of Mississippi, the greatest cotton producing State be- 
fore the war, with the Mississippi river, the cheapest carrier 
in the world, running down from the grain fields of the West, 
all along her coast, and near her cotton fields, produced, as 
can be seen from the table, heretofore given, (table No. 12,) 
36 bushels of corn to the soul, or three-fourths of the pro rata 
amount raised in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and 9.88 dollars 
worth of meat to their 7.32 for each soul. 

For the reason given above, a cotton crop can never be 
raised on bought corn and meat. It is not so much the dif- 
ference in the cost of these articles, whether brought from 
abroad or raised on the farm, but it is a matter of profitably 
and economically utilizing the surplus labor every where 
needed, at limes, in the cultivation and saving of a cotton 
crop. The West, then, can never depend upon the cotton 
South, when she once gets right, as a consumer of her grain. 
For she never can produce cotton properly and well, unless she 
makes her grain and meat on the farm. The theor}^ of these 
great western canals is all wrong. If you would render Ala- 
bama a worse waste than she is now, abandon the raising of 
meat and corn here. The county of Montgomery raised 44 
1-10 bushels of corn to the soul, or within four bushels of the 
average for Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and $9.36 of meat, or 
more than they did. We have said nothing of the splendid 
cotton crop, worth nearly two and one-half millions of dollars, 
oiot in chips and lohetstones^ but in gold — or as much as the 
entire crop products, estimated as if they ivere ivorth gold, of 
three of the richest crop-producing counties in the State of 
Indiana; and nearly as much as any two of the counties in 
Illinois. The total value of her crops was $3,264,170 ; that 
of Butler county, Ohio, only $1,671,132; or a fraction only 
over one-half of that of our county of Montgomery, in the 
State of Alabama, and more than double any two counties in 
Illinois. Place the county of Marengo, or Dallas, or other of 
the richer counties of Alabama, on the stand, and the coun- 
ties of the West would sink into insignificance beside the rich 
"values their record would show. 



36 

The figures I have beeu givicg. of the products of Alabama 
when properly cultivated and tilled, in comparison with the 
richest agricultural States of the West, sound to the new 
millions that inhabit and control the destinies of our countiy 
now, more like fiction than fact. Even our own people have 
forgotten, or they have never had the opportunity of com- 
paring, our splendid agriculture before the war with that of 
the West and Kortli. Had our condition been known at that 
time, as compared to that of our neighbors in other States of 
the Union, there tvoidd have been no war betiveen the States. 

I will speak of the climatic and other characteristics of this 
section of Alabama hereafter in this paper. I have given a 
fair statement, in the pages already written, of what Alabama 
was, as far as relates to the counties along the line of and 
contiguous to the South & North Alabama Rail Eoad, in an 
agricultural point of view, when her soils were properly cul- 
tivated and tilled before the war. I will proceed to give a 
brief record of what Alabama is now, as far as relates to the 
saime subject and the same sections of the State. I place first 
before the reader a table giving the crop products of these coun- 
ties before and since the war, or as taken from the census of 
1860, before the war began, and from that of 1870, five years- 
after the war ended. 



37 



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45 

Commencing at the northern end of the road, and taking 
up the counties in the same order that we have done hereto- 
fore, we will see what Alabama is now. 

The above tables will show the comparative amount of the 
products of the soils of these counties in Alabama, and, rated 
at the same price, their value in dollars and cents. It is true 
that the value of every product of the soil is greater now than 
before the war. But to arrive at a comparison, and mathe- 
matical measurement of the soil products, before and since 
the war, I have made the standard of prices the same now as 
it was then. Some of the minor soil products of the South 
are stricken out of the compendium of the census of 1870, for 
the reason, I suppose, that they had become too insignificant, 
since the war, to be noted. Some of them before the war — 
peas and beans, for instancCj — were of great value as articles 
of food. They are produced now, however, as compared to 
the period before the war, in quantities too small to be noted, 
in each county, in the compendium of the United States cen- 
sus for lo70. I will give here a table of the products left out 
in the county enumeration for 1870, but placed in the enumer- 
ation for the whole State : 



Year. 


Peas and 
Beans. 


Hay. 


Rice. 


Barley. 


Bye. 


1860 

1870 ........ 


1,482,070 
156,174 


62,211 
10,613 


493,465 
222,945 


15,135 
5,174 


72,157 
18,977 



From the above table, it will be seen that the omitted arti^ 
cles of crop productions are insignificant now, even for the 
whole State. The total money value of these articles, left out 
for the whole State, was $1,035,668 in 1860, and only $200,868 
in 1870. With this explanation, I will proceed with my ex- 
amination of Alabama, as it is, so far as relates to the coun- 
ties above referred to. We have heretofore shown what Ala- 
bama was — or the counties in Alabama — by comparing them 
with the States of the West. We will see what the counties 
in Alabama are now, by comparing them with themselves be- 
fore the war. To make this comparison entirely just and 



4g 

equitable, as some of the minor products are wanting in the 
census of 1870, of a money vakie less than twenty per cent, 
of what they were before the war, I will substitute the meat 
crop — the money value of which before the war, for the whole 
State, was $10,237,131, and in 18/0 $4,670,146, or 46 6-iO per 
cent, of what it was before the war. It is my opinion that 
this comparative increased money value given to the meat 
crop of Alabama since the war, arises from the fact that it 
was estimated at a higher price, or the price ruling since the 
war. It is right that this should have been so measured in 
the census. I am confirmed in this opinion, from the fact that 
the total number of swine in Alabama in 1860 was 1,748,321, 
and in iS70, 719,757, or only 41 per cent. Be this as it may, 
the meat crop of Alabama, though not strictly a crop growing 
directly from the soil, was, and always will be when our coun- 
try gets right again, next to cotton and corn, the principal of 
our agricultural industries and productions; and though less 
effected by the results of the war than are the omitted minor 
productsj amounting in 1670 to nothing, any way, I will use 
this, with cotton, corn,' wheat, and potatoes, as five leading 
products, in comparing our counties in Alabama with them- 
selves. It is true, that by taking strictly soil products, the 
loss to our agriculture would appear greater ; but no one will 
deny that this measure will show better for the Alabama agri- 
culture of to-day. I insert here a table prepared on this 
basis ; 



47 



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48 

We will be brief in our examination of this table, though 
it contains the substance of what is the matter with Alabama, 
at this time. The population of the Yalley of North Ala- 
bama, in 1860, was 132,864; in 1870 140,044, or a total in- 
crease of 9 per cent. The whites increased in this valley 19 
per cent., or from 78,830 in i860, to 91,582 in i870, and the 
blacks decreased ten per cent., or from 54,034 to 48,462. The 
blacks were in 1870, 35 per cent, of the total population. In 
1860, 40 1-10 per cent, of the total. Acres cultivated in 1860 
were 993,775, in 1870 602,365, or 60 6-10 per cent. The ag- 
gregate value of the five leading farm products was $8,353,388 
in 18()0, and $5,065,638 in 1870, or 60 38-100 per cent. ; or 
the value of the products is in exact ratio with the number 
of acres cultivated in each year. The per capita productions 
were $63.00 and $36.16. More people cultivated fewer acres, 
is the sole cause of this j^er capita loss in 1870. There was 
produced in 1860, in this valley, 5,606.436 bushels of corn, 
and 3,619,026 bushels in 1870, or 64 per cent. Cotton 93,281 
bales in 1860, and 49,266 bales in 1870, or 43.6 per cent. 
Meat, produced in 1860, $1,457,941, and $1,001,603 in 1870, 
68.6 per cent. It will be seen, here, that the per centage of 
meat is the largest. This arises from the heretofore stated 
fact, that the price prevailing since the war, has been used in 
obtaining the census value of this article in 1870. It shows, 
also, very clearly, that I am doing no injustice, in my meas- 
urement of the present agriculture of Alabama, in placing 
this product in my tables. 



MADISON COUNTY. 

The population of Madison, in 1860, was 26,450, in lh70, 
31,267 ; a total increase of 18 per cent. The whites increased 
3? per cent., and the blacks 9 per cent. This, with the other 
counties in the valley, is a white man's country, as it is called; 
as is clearly shown by the silent, eloquent, and unerring teach- 
ings of these figures. The aggregate value of the farm pro^ 
ducts of this county, in 1860, was $1,674,623, in 1870 $992,- 
998, or a loss of 50.7 per cent. Acres cultivated in 1860, 
214,509, and 139,305 in 1870, or a decrease of 65 per cent. ; 



49 

very nearly corresponding with the decrease in production. 
The per capita productions were $62.93 in 1860, and $31.91 in 
1870. Here again, more people cultivated fewer acres, or did 
not work at all ; and we see the per capita crop productions 
only about one-half of what they were before the war. The 
war. The county of Limestone, as can be seen from the 
tables, has the largest fcr capita production, both in 1860, 
and 1870, of any county in North Alabama, and averaged 
more than the whole valley. The county of Morgan shows 
a falling off in the black population, and an increase in the 
white. The negroes in this county are only 27 per cent, of 
the whole population. ' The per capita productions were 
$56.47 in 1860, and $39.44 in 1870, or a loss in per capita pro- 
duction of only 30.16 per cent. Blount, Walker and Winston, 
had only 5,5 per cent, of negroes in 1870, and their loss in 
2)er capita was only 12.76 per cent. The South & North Ala- 
bama Rail Road was completed in 1872j through these coun- 
ties, and they are being fast settled up. 



CULLMAN. 

The condition of the Germany Colony of Cullman is shown 
by the following statement of its founder, John G. Cullman, 
Esq, : 

The first settlers arrived in this colony, May 28, 1873, and 
consisted of five families. 

In January, 1874, the number had increased to 130 fami- 
lies, and to-day we have nearly 500 families, of whom 130 are 
living in the town, and the others are on farms in the 
country. 

In the town, where all was woods when we came here, 142 
buildings have been erected. 

We have a furniture factory, (Southern Novelty Works,) 
wagon factor}^, cigar factory, fire-arms factory, steam flouring 
mill, saw-mills, tannery, five stores that keep everything for 
sale that is needed, and do a large business, in buying up all 
the produce that comes to this market, three good hotels, 
drug store, physicians and representatives of all trades. 

The first fifty families, with few exceptions, were poor peo- 
ple and acted as pioneers in cuttiog out streets and improv- 
ing the town ; they were employed by myself and paid $1.50 
per da}" ; fire-wood was cut and delivered to the rail road 
4 



/ 



50 

company at $1.75 per cord. This was of material assistance 
to settlers in the beginning. 

These people entered government land, and their farms are 
worth from $1,000 to $2,500 to day. Before the settlement 
of this colony the land here had hardly any value, and could 
be bought at from 12| to 25 cents an acre ; to-day the aver- 
age price is $3.00, and near town is sold at from $10.00 to 
$15.00. 

Old farms, that were offered when the settlement was be- 
gun for $b00.00, were sold a year following for $1,250.00, and 
others, offered for $700.00, sold for $1,800.00, and so on ; over 
100 old farms have already passed into the hands of new set- 
tlers. 

The whole territory, which forms the Colony of Cullman, 
was not worth over $250,000.00, to-day it is worth $3,000,000. 
Section 15, which formerly paid $2.4U taxes, now pays about 
$1,1.00.00. 

Wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, hops, and all the 
products of the South and East, are raised here. 

Particular attention is being paid to grape culture, and with 
good success. 

The product of one acre of grape vines, in this the second 
year of its growth, amounts to $500.00. 

It is safe to assume that, with a full crop, each vine will 
produce 50 cents worth of grapes, and, as from 1200 to 1600 
can be planted on an acre, they will bring, at least, from 
$600.00 to $800.00. 

John G. Cullman. 



JEFFEESON COUNTY. 

The county of Jefferson stood, in 1860, $50.48 in per caioita 
farm products, and $25,5 in 1870, showing a loss per cent, of 
49.49. This great loss in production, in a county containing 
only 20 per cent, of negroes, was a matter of some surprise 
to me. I, however, found the cause of this loss. Jones' Val- 
ley, extending entirely through the county, a distance of fifty 
miles, and from three to five miles wide, was, and is now, the 
principal agricultural feature in the county. In examiniug 
the detailed statistics, by townships, of this county, I found 
that of 2,506 negroes in the county, 2,289 hved in this valley 
in 1870, and 3,697 whites, or the negroes were 38 2-10 per 
cent, of the total population here. I found the loss had all 



51 

occured there, and was chargeable there, as elsewhere in the 
State, to the loss on, or shrinkage of negro labor. The 
county of Shelby has suffered in the same way, and to the 
same extent, as Jefferson. It stands $51.15 in comparative 
value of the counties in Alabama, as a farm producing 
county. 

Autauga has been so much cut up, since the war, that no 
fair comparison can be made of this county, now, with its 
former self. It stands $72.83 in the tables. We come nest 
to the county of Montgomery. 

There has been some change in the county lines of this 
county, but not affecting the per capita production since the 
war, as the portion cut off carried an equal proportion of pop- 
ulation. Population of this county in 186U was 35,904, and 
in 1870 43,704. The whites increased only 2^ per cent., the 
blacks 23. I per cent. There was a loss of white population in 
Alabama, in the decade ending with 1870, of nearly one per 
cent., or 4,887 souls. The loss of the whites was mainly from 
the accidents of the war. The increase of the negroes was 
altogether in the counties of the black belt. The larger 
towns and cities, have the greatest amount of this increase. 
The blacks were 71.5 of the population in 1870, and the loss 
in production 67.25 per cent. We come now to the Black 
Belt. We, find, that by taking the whole area of ten thousand 
square miles, the whites had fallen oft' about ten per cent., 
and the blacks had increased about twenty per cent., and that 
the blacks in 1870 were 71.1 of the population, and that the 
loss in production was 63.83 per cent., or that there was pro- 
duced in this region only 36.17 per cent, of the total before 
the war, or as taken from the census of 1860. This is nearly 
the same proportion of loss as that of the county of Mont- 
gomery; 71.3 of its population lieing negroes, and 71.1 for 
the whole area. By an inspection of the following table, the 
value of the soils of each section, and each county, for agri- 
cultural productions, before and since the war, will be found 
measured in dollars and cents — the American rule for meas- 
uring all things. Also, the proportion of negroes, in each 
section and county, for 1870 ; the 2'>^>' capita productions for 
the two periods; the per cent, of production, and also the 
per centage of loss, for 1870, as compared with 1860 : 



52 



County oe Section. 


PEE CAPITA 
PKODUCTION. 


Per centage of 
production. 




a 

S 00 


sntage of 

popula- 

1879. [ 




1860 


1870 


Per c 

negro 
tion, 


Tennessee Valley 


$ 63 00 
62.93 
56.47 
33.79 

72 '83 
99.45 
103.25 


$ 36 16 
31.91 
39.44 
29.48 

36 '95 
32.57 
37.41 


57.40 
50.70 
69.84 
87.24 
50.70 
50.73 
33.37 
36.23 


42.60 
49.30 
30.16 
12.76 
49.30 
49.47 
67.23 
63.77 


35 


Madison 


47 


Morgan 


27 


Blount, Walker and Winston. . 
Jones' Valley 


5.5 

38. 2 


Autauga 


62.75' 


Montgomery 


71.5 


Black Belt 


71.9 



The first column measures, in my opinion, the exact com-' 
parative vakie of the soils of the several sections, as agricul- 
tural regions. They were all cultivated equally well in 1860, 
the period upon which this column is founded. It will be 
seen, that the Valley of North Alabama stands $63.00 ; Mad- 
ison county $62.93. Madison is, perhaps, not fairly meas- 
ured in this table, as her large city of Huntsville is not de- 
ducted, though a city of non-producers ; this county, this 
being done, will stand equal to Limestone, in the value of her 
soil for farming, or $72.85, With this exception, this table 
measures fairly the agricultural value of the soils of all the 
sections and counties, along the South & North Alabama 
Rail Road. It would read then, Valley of North Alabama 
$62 93, Madison $72 85, Limestone $72 85, Morgan $56 47, 
Blount, Winston and Walker $33 79, Jefferson $50 48, Shelby 
$51 05, Autauga $72 83, Montgomery $99 45, Black Belt 
$103 43. In other words, one man would, and did produce, 
in 1860, by his labor, $6-^ 93 upon an average, in the Valley 
of North Alabama, $103 43 in the Black Belt, $50 48 in Jef- 
ferson county, and $33 79 in Blount, Walker and Winston. 
It will be seen that the loss in production is everywhere in 
exact proportion to the per centage of negroes in any coilnty 
or section. The number of negroes in Blount, Walker and 
Winston is 5.^ ]5er cent., and the loss of production is 12.76 
per cent. ; Morgan county 27 per cent, negroes, loss 30.16 per 
cent. ; Valley of North Alabama, negroes 35 per cent., loss 
40 per cent ; Jones' Valley -387-10 per cent., and the loss 49.30 
per cent. ; Madison county 50 per cent, negroes, and the loss 
is 49.30 per cent. ; Montgomery 71.5 per cent, negroes, and 



53 

the loss G7.25 per cent. ; Black Belt 71.1 per cent, negroes 
and the loss is 63.83 per cent. That the amount of this loss 
may more fully appear, we will continue our examination and 
comparison of the Black Belt, with itself, for 1860 and 1870. 

There was raised here, in 1860, 14,374,052 bushels of In- 
dian corn ; in 1870, 6,270,843 bushels. Wheat, 170.141 bush- 
els in 1860, and only 16,517 in 1870. Cotton, 644 911 in 1860, 
and 24;),018 in 18/0. Potatoes, 2,767,582 bushels in 1860, 
and u44,055 in 1870. Hogs, 654,787 in 1860, and only 
166,396 in 1^70. Meat, $3,898,918 in 1860, and only $973,416 
in 1870. Stop, reader, and look again over these figures and 
results. They tell what Alabama is now, and what is the 
matter with her. Your losses, and your condition, are truth- 
fully and truly expressed here, people of the rich counties in 
Alabama, in figures, in dollars and cents. 

Is there any wonder that want, and gaunt, haggard des- 
pair prevails everj^where in the Black Belt, since 1867? If 
the reader in Alabama will only look to the end of that year, 
he will recollect that a sadly dark cloud settled then, over this 
part of Alabama, and from that time, until now, this section 
has been gradually growing poorer. We will continue our 
examination, and comparison of the Black Belt, with itself. 
We have stated that the farmers in the Black Belt, produced 
corn and meat enough, before the war, to do them, and no 
more. This with an immense amount of small food crops, 
carried them comfortably through the year. The counties 
south of the Tennessee river, in the Valley of North Alabama, 
and those in the Valley of Virginia, extended into Alabama, 
furnished a large amount of the surplus of meat and bread- 
stufifs for the army of non-producers in the Black Belt ; but 
the farmers, themselves, consumed in their families, and agri- 
cultural operations, the entire amount of grain and meat 
crops raised in this section. In 1860, they raised 14,374,052 
bushels, and only 6,279,843 bushels in 1870, or a deficiency 
in the corn product of eight millions ninety-four thousand and 
tivo hundred and nine bushels. As can be seen from the tables, 
there were more mouths to feed, here, since the war, than be- 
fore ; and it is well known that this deficiency in corn was 
paid for at a high rate, averaging since 1867, $1 25 per 
bushel laid down in the crib, on the farm. Including com- 



64 

missions, advaiices, and forced mortgages on growing crops a 
system prevailing everywhere in Alabama, where cotton was 
produced, it was nearer double this figure, on an average. 
The cost of this short corn, was then $10,117,511. The meat 
production, at the prices ruling in 1860, was $3,898,918, and 
$973,614 in 1870, or 25 per ct. of that of 1860. In i860, there 
were 654,787 hogs in this region, in 1870, only 166,396, 25.36 
per cent. 

The comparative accuracy of the statistics of the census 
can be seen here — only 36-100 of one per cent, difference in 
the ratio of meat products in 1860 and 1870, and that of the 
number of hogs in each of these years. The deficiency of 
meat was $2,925,502. But the deficiency of meat was also 
saddled with commissions, advances, haulage, profits, under 
forced mortgages, and amounted, when it reached the smoke- 
house on the farm, to at least $5,000,000. 

We come next to potatoes. This crop amounted here in 
1860 to 2,767,582 bushels. In 1872, to only 544,055, or 19| 
per cent. It has been seen, that the small crops left out of 
the county records, but tabulated for the whole State, were, 
in 1870, only 19.41 per cent, of what they were in 1860. So, 
that the production and loss on the potatoe crop may be con- 
sidered as applying to all the left out and unenumerated crops 
of this section. In dollars and cents, this appears small ; but 
in health, comfort and convenience, these small crops now are 
sadly missed in this section. Owing to the climate, these 
small crops grow better here, and are missed more when want- 
ing than in any section of the United States. Hundreds and 
thousands of once well to do, but now poor families in Ala- 
bama, live from April to November on the crops of their gar- 
dens, seasoned with a little salt, and a very little meat. The 
deficiency in potatoes here is 2,223,527 bushels. Although 
our farming people do not buy them, and can not buy them 
now, they must fill up with something else, or lie under a log, 
and starve to the extent of the loss. In dollars and cents, it 
would cost here one dollar per bushel now, although we have 
estimated them in our tables at one-third of this amount, or 
$2,273,527. 

The loss on the fodder crop, amounting in 1860 in the whole 
State, to 300,000 tons, and in 1870 to only 150,000 tons, or 



55 

only a few more tons than the crop of the Black Belt alone 
in 1860, is seriously felt in this section of Alabama. It 
amounts now to less than 50,000 tons for this whole section, 
or a loss of 100,000 tons, costing the farmer now, in imported 
hay, over $2,000,000. 

The wheat crop of 1860 was 170,161 bushels ; in 1870, only 
16,517 bushels. This was a small crop, even in 1860, but gave 
2 2 bushels of wheat to each person of the white families en^ 
gaged only in farming here in 1860, and was all of this article 
they used. The loss, at one dollar, is $153,624; but as the 
farming white people in this section now use only corn bread, 
and do not buy flour, we will place the loss at the above fig- 
ures. 

The un enumerated lost crops of this section are large, but 
we will take no account of them here. We will add up now, 
and see how we stand : 

Lost Corn $10,117,511 

" Meat 5,000,000 

" Potatoes 2,237,527 

" Fodder 2,000,000 

" Wheat 153,624 

Total $19,508,662 

Now what has the farming population with which to pay this 
great debt every year? This debt must be paid first, or the 
people will starve. It is meat and bread — it is life itself. We 
find nothing but a cotton crop of 249,018 bales, of 400 pounds 
each. The product in I860 was 644,911 bales; in 1870 it was 
249,018, or only 37.05 per cent. As there is no record of the 
amount of cotton produced in each county, except that made 
by the census at the end of each decade, and to show that 
the cotton product, as enumerated in the census of 1870, is 
an average for Alabama since the war, I will insert here a 
table of the receipts at the port of Mobile, for the period 
commencing with 1859 and ending with 1876; and also the 
prices of cotton at that port for each and all of these years : 



56 



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57 

It will be seen that the average receipts for the port of Mo- 
bile from 1866 to 1875, ten years, was 301,703 bales. The 
receipts for the census year was b06,061, or more than the 
average receipts for ten years. The rise and fall in the re- 
ceipts for the port of Mobile, for each year, measure always 
the rise and fall in the aggregate amount of the cotton pro- 
duct of Alabama. The prices are also given in detail, and 
for each month of the season, from 1859 to 1876. Though 
cotton has risen greatly since the war, it is now only about 
the same price in Europe, (and of course here, in gold,) as 
before the war ; and here it will remain, for the next decade 
at least. v 

The cotton bale of the census weighs 400 pounds, and I 
value it at ten cents, or $40 per bale, the price it was in the 
years immediately preceding the war. When we left our sub- 
ject, there was a deficiency of $19,508,662 to be paid for out 
of the cotton crop of the Black Belt, amounting to 249,018 
bales. At twenty cents per pound, or $80 per bale, the price 
ruling then, the cotton crop of the Black Belt was worth 
$19,921,440, or just about paid for this deficit for food, to say 
nothing of tools, clothing, medicine, and the thousand and 
one unenumerated things incident to and necessary for farm- 
ing, for rent, repairs, time, and the wages of labor. It will 
be seen that cotton commenced falling this year, and it is 
worth now, as heretofore stated, not more than ten cents per 
pound, or the price before the war, and a price above which 
it will not average for any decade hereafter. When cotton 
was at twenty cents, it has been seen that the people of the 
Black Belt could live, and just live, on their reduced produc- 
tions ; but could buy nothing, or make no clear money. Cot- 
ton has not averaged since 1870 more than 12^ cents per 
pound to the planter, after paying advances, interest, and 
commissions on the forced mortgages. At this price, the cot- 
ton crop of the Black Belt was worth $12,455,900, or there is 
a deficit of $7,052,763 in the payment for meat and bread, the 
very essentials of life. This state of things has existed here 
for five years, and will never grow better with the present 
system of labor. It has been asked how these people lived? 
Go look in the hook of mortgages and deeds at your court-houses 
and you will see. Ask for the treasured relics of a race thcd has 



58 

passed away ! Your loomen unadorned with the treasures of art, 
their jewels given up, that their offspring might live. 

I am not above the figures, when I state it as a fact, that 
one-half of this area of ten thousand square miles, has been 
mortgaged, eaten up, and has changed hands, since the war, 
and the remainder, two years ago, could have been bought 
for a song. Since then, there has been some little change for 
the better ; but not much. When cotton was worth lO cents, 
and upwards, the people could live, and just live, notwith- 
standing the loss in production here, but as cotton continued 
to fall from 20 to 17, 15, 13, 12, and then to 10 cents, and un- 
der the death like shadows of disappointment, and despair, 
settled sadly and slowly over this section of our State. The 
high prices of cotton alone, kept us from starving, and kept 
off the evil day. Free negro labor is a failure in Alabama, 
as it has been the Avorld over, and from the beginning of 
time. I knew this, when our civil war ended, and so did 
every intelligent man in America. But I hoped the superior 
vigor of Anglo-American people, would make our country an 
exception to the rule, and that the negro could be made self- 
sustaining, as a race, in Alabama ; but the figures in this 
book, and elsewhere, the condition of agriculture, any, and 
everywhere in the South, where they are the only reliance for 
labor, prove conclusively, that I am hoping against hope. I 
can not enter here, into a discussion of this negro question. 
His value as a laborer, now, is truly measured, and given, in 
this paper. Go back with me now, gentle reader, to the spot 
where we stood on the fourth day of July, 1860, on the south- 
ern end of the Blue Ridge mountains, near the exact centre 
of the State. Sixteen years ago, we met on this spot, and I 
bade you look out on a scene of agriculture, such as the 
world never saw. Look again, and what do you see now, on 
the fourth day of July, 1876 ! The same fertile soil, the same 
air, and the new artesian well water, is there. The same 
people are there, too. The Alabama, the Tombigbee, and 
and the Warrior rivers run here now, as they did then, cut 
down deep into the rich dark Kmestone formation. Only an 
occasional steamboat is seen now, on these rivers, as they 
meander slowly along the vast, now uncultivated, prairie 
meadows. It is ribbed all over with rail roads, now, built 



59 

mainly since the war ; some long, and some short, some run- 
ning, and some not. The cities and towns have grown larger ; 
but that splendid agriculture you saw on the fourth day of 
July, 1 860, is gone, forever gone, and a sickly, hand-to-mouth, 
unprofitable agriculture, is carried on here now. Look at the 
country immediately at your feet — the mountain plain of Au- 
tauga. Go with me over the southern section of this region, 
some ten to fifteen miles wide, bordering as a rich selvage, 
the rich prairie belt, all the way from Marion to Wetumpka. 
A region of rich land, good water, and good health, all com- 
bined ; and a region where once was carried on the most ele- 
gant and comfortable agriculture in the State. The comfort 
is still there, but the elegant agriculture is all gone ; and I 
find here, that the farmers are abandoning negro labor, and 
they, and their 5'oung sons are cultivating their broad fields, 
by themselves. A visit to the farm of a single planter, in this 
region, will serve as a sample of all, as he is here well 
known as a model, and leading farmer, in this region ; that of 
Lazarus B. Parker. He owns some six thousand acres of 
land, in the south-eastern part of Autauga county. When 
the war ended, he owned more than a hundred slaves ; prop- 
erty made on this identical farm, in thirty years. When 
there, a few days ago, he showed me the first field cleared on 
this farm, having been under cultivation over fifty years, and 
better soil now than when first cultivated. The water was of 
course good, coming as it does from the foot hills of the 
Appalachian chain. But the great granaries, the miles of 
great grain and cotton fields were wanting. The reason is 
summed up in a few woids, as given by Mr. Parker himself. 
I have kept my negroes mostly around me, and whilst cotton 
was high I kept about even. But as cotton went down, they 
seemed to become more unreliable and worthless, as laborers, 
and for the last five or six years, I have lost money on every 
free negro around me, and with the exception of two or three 
old, and trusted family negroes, whom I expect always to 
support, on account of their fidelity and faithfulness when 
slaves, I have one negro only, about me, and that is my cook. 
Whilst sitting in his piazza, in June, and talking on this sub- 
ject, I heard a number of ploughmen coming into the front 
yard, or grove, from a side gate, and as they came into the 



60 

yard, I saw that they were all white men and boys, eight or 
ten in all, and his son, a youth of fourteen, in the lead. There 
goes my labor now, as the ploughmen passed by. What has 
become of your old negroes ? The Lord only knows. They 
are scattered among the hills around here, doing nothing. 
There is no money in farming with free negroes, now. I 
walked out, and looked over his once splendid farm, a lovely 
valley, some four miles long, and two miles wide ; with a large, 
clear, swift running creek, running through the middle, with 
not a particle of swamp on its borders, the farm all covered 
over with weeds and grass. It is simply waiting now, and 
waiting for labor only ; as are hundreds of thousands, and 
even millions of acres of rich lands, all over the State. This 
man is one among thousands, in Alabama. He always had 
money, and paid no extra money on advances, and made all 
of his corn and meat on Ms farm ; but he did not make enough 
with free negro labor, to feed over one hundred mouths, and 
have any profit left, when cotton was under 20 cents. If this 
man, a success before, during the war, and now, has failed 
with free negro labor, there is an end of it. This man is well 
known, and his opinions and actions are always laws, on any 
subject, where he is known. The country grows poorer as 
the plain rises slowly northward, from this selvage section of 
Autauga ; but, at and around the spot on which we are stand- 
ing, any farmer can do well, if he will work, as he can, 
any and everywhere, on this elevated, tree covered mountain 
plain. 

I will insert here, a letter received from the German Col- 
ony of Strasburg, recently located on the rail road, in the 
northern part of this region. They have been here only one 
year, and I have heard of no complaint. The letter speaks 
for itself : 

SteasburCt, Ala., August 12, 1876. 
Col. Milner : 

We settled at this point about 18 months ago, leaving New 
Albany, Indiana, as a colony, the 14tli of February, 1875. 
As most of us are Gei-mans, we named our settlement Stras- 
burg, after the city of that name, in the old country. 

We are delighted with the climate, have plenty of good wa- 
ter, and for health, we believe this locality can not be sur- 
passed. When we arrived here, it was very heavily timbered ; 



61 

and have been engaged, principally, in saw milling^— having 
two mills at this place, and one about three-fourths of a mile 
further south. 

What farming and gardening we have done, proves to us 
that the soil is adapted to the raising of anything that can be 
grown in Indiana, with the addition of cotton, and the sugar 
cane, and judging from what we have seen within a few miles 
of our place, the country is as well adapted to the raising of 
the grape, as any part of Fiance, or Germany. 

We have not done much, yet, towards getting emigration 
from the North ; what few we have, are well pleased, and say 
they wish they had known of this country before. 

We expect to have quite an increase to our numbers, in the 
course of another year. 

Very respectfully, 

Strasburg Agricultural & Mfg. Co., 

Per Crowell. 

The counties north of where we are standing — Shelby, Jef- 
ferson, Walker, Blount, and Winston, occupying the plain, or 
elevated plateau, representing in Alabama the mountain re- 
gions of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennesse, with a crop 
producing record as given in the statements, and tables above, 
is wanting, waiting only for labor. The Tennessee Valley of 
North Alabama, with only 35 per cent, of negroes, and they, 
as has been seen, rapidly growing less ; and with a crop pro- 
duction in 1870, of nearly 60 per cent, of that of 1860, must 
soon have its 40 per cent, of uncultivated, and its 60 per cent, 
of unprofitably cultivated soil, covered with an industrious 
and thriving population of white men. Notice here, I use 
the word mvst, and I mean it, and I will demonstrate fully 
that this sentence applies to ever}' part of Alabama, before I 
am through writing this book. People go no where from 
sympathy, but they go everywhere from interest. Es- 
tablish a civil government in Alabama, such as we have had 
for the last one or two years, and maintain it here, and we 
will be wanting in labor but a short while. The soil of Ala- 
bama, when properly cultivated and tilled, is, as has been 
fully shown by our figures of comparison heretofore given, 
superior to any State in this tJnion, in the production of agri- 
cultural values, except Louisiana, Mississippi, and California. 
The presentment made by the census of 1860, of the crop 
products, and crop values of the different States and sections 



62 

of our country, was a true statement, and compiled from ma- 
terials obtained at a time when the soils of all the States 
Were cultivated alike, and equally well. The presentment 
made by the census of 1870, is likewise, a true statement of 
the soil productions then. But unexplained, and scattered 
all over the civilized world, as they have been by those inter- 
ested in peopling other sections of our country, as represent- 
ing truly, not only the productions of our soils then, but as 
the actual, and comparative capabilities of our soils, for the 
production of agricultural values, they have done the South 
an almost irreparable injury. These statements have been 
upheld, and fortified by the circulation of colored maps, all 
over the civilized world, under the sign manual of our Nation, 
giving the capabilities of the soils of Alabama, and the other 
Southern States, as taken from the census of 1870. Tables 
have also been prepared^, representing the capabilities of our 
soil, and hung up, and scattered everywhere, under the same 
great authority, until now, the soils of Georgia, Alabama, 
and Mississippi, and the other Southern States, in the pro- 
duction of agricultural values, are represented in these maps, 
and reports constructed under the authority as above, in lan- 
guage like the following : 

" For the ten Southern States, the average production is 
$267, while even the six sterile New England States pro- 
duced $490 for each farmer." 

The above is but two lines, of ten thousand pages, costing 
the Government millions of dollars — of persistent misrepre- 
sentations of the soils of the South, and still our people have 
been so much occupied with their political affairs, that no man 
has been found to undertake the exposition and explanation 
of these damaging misrepresentations. I can not believe 
that it is done by design ; but whether done so or not, it has 
the full effect of placing our soils before the new generations 
of men, who have sprung up here, and elsewhere, in the last 
sixteen years, as the most worthless, and the least capable of 
producing agricultural values, of any part of our great coun- 
try. If I have time, and can get pen, ink/ and paper, and any 
one will print what I write, I will set Alabama, and my native 
State, Georgia, right. 

We have now shown what Alabama was, what she is, and 



63 

we must next enter the region of prophecy as to what Ala- 
bama will be. I have shown that the labor here, now, is ut-- 
terly worthless, as the basis of our agricultural prosperity, 
and the great question with Alabama now, is to get a labor 
which can, and will cultivate her land properly, as it was be-- 
fore the war. To get this labor is an easy matter, if we go at 
it right. 

"We will now proceed to give the reasons why an immigra- 
tion of white men must come to Alabama. The same reasons 
and arguments will apply to all the Southern States, as well. 
They will come here, not by force or the arbitrary commands 
of power ; hut interest, and the force of circumstances will bring 
them here. 

We have now fully demonstrated, by figures and facts that 
can not be doubted or gainsaid, that the soils of Alabama, 
when properly cultivated and tilled before the war, exceeded, 
or were richer in the production of crop values, than those of 
any of the States of the Union, except Mississippi, Louisiana, 
and California. 

The matter of climate and health will be treated of here- 
after, and it will be seen that on this important question Ala- 
bama stood before the war, and will stand again when sys- 
tematic industry returns to her soil, equal to and even with 
the great agricultural States of our Union. The negro ques-' 
tion will, if left to itself, be solved by natural causes alone, 
and the yjolitical significance of the negro being lost, he will 
follow now the laws inherent in his constitution ; and increas- 
ing as he does slowly, in comparison to the whites, where 
emancipated all over the ciAilized world, he will cease soon to 
be an object or cause of apprehension in Alabama. 

The population of the United States was o8,558,871 in 1870. 
In ISGi) i; will be, at only the usual rate of increase, 49,125,- 
882. The increase now from births and immigration is one 
million a year. In other words, there are one million new 
people in the United States each year wanting homes. One 
hundred years ago our population was three millions, settled 
along the Atlantic from Georgia to Massachusetts. This 
three millions in one hundred years have filled up and occu- 
pied the territory from the Atlantic to the 97th meridian, or 
150 miles west of Missouri, and would have gone farther west 



64- 

but for reasons I will hereafter give. They have crossed the 
Vast deserts, and taken up and occupied every available acre 
of cultivatable land in the far west, and are now going south- 
ward into Texas, and northward into Minnesota. There is a 
wide difference between the annual increase of three and fifty 
millions. The annual increase then was only 900,000 for each 
decade — 90,000 for each year ; of fifty millions, is fifteen mil- 
lions for each decade, or one million five hundred thousand 
for each year. I have said there are over one million Avanting 
homes each year. In four years, or by 1880, there will be one 
and a half millions. Where must these neiv millions go to jind 
agricultural homes ? It has heretofore been the custom to go 
west; but, reader, if you will follow me attentively thiough a 
few pages of facts, I will convince you that this custom has 
ended, or will end in four years at farthest. 

There is no agricultural country unoccupied now by white 
people west of the 98th and 100th m., or the middle of Kansas, 
the point which agricultural civilization has already reached. 
Great rail roads are built and running across this region from 
the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean ; still the emigrants in 
Nebraska are hugging closely the Missouri river, and don't 
go out on the plains. The solid ranks, as they marched out 
from the borders of Missouri into the adjoining rich lands of 
Kansas, have come to a dead halt at the 99th meridian, and 
only a few stragglers have gone farther west to battle with 
the grasshoppers, drouth, and impossible agricultural soil 
without irrigation. Great rail roads are running here, too, 
and still the emigration does not go forward. Passing south 
through the Indian Territory to Texas, we find the agricul- 
tural people halting at the meridian line of 100. Going north 
into Dakota, we find the agricultural limit at 98. What is 
the matter ? Why this straggling, this halting, this crossing 
over to the Pacific — this northward movement to Minnesota, 
and this movement south-west to Texas? The answer is 
found in the fact, and I stand ready to prove it any and every 
where, that beyond the margin just mentioned there is no country 
unoccupied noio luhere an agricuUttral civilization can settle and 
live. 

Open the maps we studied when boys forty years ago, old 
men of the United States, and you will find this region char- 



65 

acterized, and called on these maps, as the Great American 
Desert. It was a true statement then, and is true now. Since 
then I have traveled all over this region, in every State and 
Territory from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, except 
Dakota, Montana, Arizona, and New Mexico, and it is true 
from the testimony of an eye ivitness. Nearly thirty years ago 
I met the Mormons at Salt Lake, hunting all over the Terri- 
tory of Utah for little spots of eultivatable soil. Thirty years 
ago I stood around and defended the women and children of 
Iowa and Illinois, as they hurried across this treeless, rainless, 
uncultivatable desert of nearly two thousand miles, and set- 
tled down in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and in the Sac- 
ramento Valley in Cali^rnia, the only strip of life-giving soil 
(and that on an average of from five to fifty miles wide) that 
lies between the 98th and 100th meridian and the Pacific ocean. 
There are spots, and only spots, in this great area of 1500 
miles square, where a possible agriculture may be carried on 
without irrigation. In Utah, only 1105 square miles, or an 
ai'ea about equal to- a single county in Alabama, possible to 
be cultivated successfully, even with the irrigating water to be 
found in that vast territory. In the Rocky Mountains, beau- 
tiful valleys, or parks as they are called, are found in Idaho, 
Montana, Colorado, and New Mexico — of small area, however, 
but looking beautiful when not covered with snow. But even 
here cultivation can becarried on only by irrigation of the soil, 
and the seasons are so short that nothing except the quickest 
growing vegetables can be raised. Around Denver, in the 
State of Colorado, by intercepting the few rivers that flow 
east from the Rocky Mountains before they have been drunk 
up by the hot sands of the barren plains, a small area has 
been reclaimed and is profitably cultivated, though irrigated 
at great cost and expense. In New Mexico and Arizona, vaih. 
the exception of the narrow valleys of the Rio Grande and 
the Gila — and they eultivatable only by irrigation — the whole 
country is, agriculturally speaking, a barren waste. 

In Nevada, the hot winds, the alkili salts, and the entire 

absence of irrigating streams — even if any soil at all fitted 

for cultivation was found — precludes any idea of agriculture. 

The agriculture of Oregon is summed up in the Williamette 

5 



66 

Valley and a few other spots only, where irrigation can be 
had. In California, the Sacramento Valley is well situated 
for agriculture ; but here^ as elsewhere, the hot winds and no 
rains for seven months in the summer render agriculture im^ 
possible, except in a few counties in the coast range and 
around the bay of San Francisco, without extensive and costly 
works of irrigation. Some parts of this extensive region are 
covered over with a species of bunch grass — notably Arizona 
and the north-western part of New Mexico. But this, when 
when once eaten o£f, as is estimated, requires five years for a 
renewal, and sheep will, by nibbling at the roots in the dry 
sand, destroy it altogether, Tliis country is truly a desert, 
compared with the poorest of the States now occupied by the 
farming people of the United States. There is nothing but 
gold and silver and the religion of Mormons to keep agiicul- 
tural white people for a moment in this vast, treeless, water- 
less, inhospitable region of our country. 

There is a small strip of country west of Missouri, Iowa 
and Arkansas about one hundred and fifty miles wide, ex- 
tending into and through the State of Texas, of cultivatable 
soil now fast being settled up by emigration. But what is 
this little strip of half filled country to the new millions that 
are seeking homes every year. In less than four years this 
little strip will all be taken up, and then, and even before 
then, the ever moving and home hunting millions must start 
in some other direction. " There is now no other unoccupied 
agricultural territory, except that made vacant in the South 
by the failure of free negro labor, and they must and will 
come here." As before stated, I am fully prepared to make 
good all the above statements and facts. Others have trav- 
eled over and examined this vast region and described it 
more ably than I can, but they have written in great books 
and volumes not acces>ible to the general reader. All, with- 
out a single exception, all pointing to the same end that the 
country west of the 98th and 100th meridian, excepting only 
a little strip in Oregon and California from ten to fifty miles 
wide, is unfit for any agricultural civilization. The Yellow- 
stone and oth€3r branches of the Missouri may be used at 
great expense for the purposes of irrigation. The various 
•branches of the Columbia river east of the Cascade moun- 



67 

tains may be used in the same way to reclaim a part of this 
sterile desert in Idaho or Oregon. The Platte, the Arkansas, 
and the Canadian may also be utilized in this way for a lim- 
ited distance where they first leave the snowy mountains, and 
before they reach the hot and dry plains of Kansas, Colo- 
rado and Nebraska. The Kio Grande is utilized now, and 
has been for the last two hundred years, for the last drop that 
can be spared. But what does all this mean to a people who 
have been accustomed to receive their rain water for their 
fields without cost or expense at the Divine will and from the 
Heavens. It means this and nothing more and nothing less 
to our agricultural people, or their descendants, who wish to 
go to this country ; they had better stay where they are, and 
turn the Ohio, the Tennessee and the Alabama rivers over 
the tops of the high hills and mountains here and by this 
means add something to the production of the soil naturally 
better suited for agriculture. As a proof of my assertion I 
will give a few brief extracts from authors well known, and 
whose fitness and integrity cannot be doubted. The evidence 
on the affirmative of this subject is found any and everywhere 
in the reports of the commissioned ofl&cers of the army of the 
United States, and the contrary is found no where except in 
the interested reports of the bond sellers, and others having 
a personal interest and not responsible to any one as to what 
they say or represent. 

The Agricultural Bureau of our government has gone to 
the extreme limit of truth in its treatment of this .subject. 
Yet the natural evidence found everywhere here, is so plain 
and so well defined, that all these strained arguments and 
trashy statements are swept away like chaff before the wind, 
by the clear, concise and ponderous evidence found every- 
wdiere in the reports of the great officers commissioned 
especially by our government to examine into and report 
upon this subject. I scarcely know what part or how much 
of this evidence to quote. Gov. Houston, the present Gov- 
ernor of Alabama, has agreed to examine my book, and if 
possible, I will submit the mass of testimony now before me 
on this subject for his endorsement. It will then be law, at 
least in Alabama, and as my object in writing this book is as 
much for the information and satisfaction of the people of 



68 

Alabama, as for anything else, my purpose will have been ac- 
complished. Our people had better cling to their homes in 
Alabama, for the time is coming, in fact is here noiv, when the 
chance of getting agricultural homes in the new west Avill have 
ended. I say this to m}^ people in Alabama with a full and 
personal knowledge of the whole subject. Believe me, for it 
is true. 

I will quote from the reports of Maj. Gen. Emory, Prof. 
Blake, Gen. Humphries, present Chief of Engineers, and from 
the United States Secretary of War and other authentic doc- 
uments of a more recent date. 

I will quote first from the report of Gen. Emory, of the Uni- 
ted States army, to the Secretary of War. It will be remem- 
bered, that many of the officers of tlie United States army, 
were specially engaged, for j'ears before the war, in the ex- 
amination of this region, from the borders of Missouri, Iowa, 
and Texas, to the Pacific ocean, and traversed every portion 
of this extended area, from Mexico on the south, to British 
America on' the north. Their reports are comprehensive, 
dignified, stately, and trne. In this synopsis I am limited as 
to space, and have already overrun it, and can quote only 
short extracts, but I pledge the reader, that no extracts will 
be selected for a purpose, or will the geuei;;d opinion of any 
witness, be perverted or changed, by any extracts I may 
publish. 

Gen. Emory says: "A general description of the topo- 
graphical features of the country, along the boundary be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, (traversing the whole 
breadth of the continent,) cannot be made comprehensive, 
without presenting, in the same view, the great outline of the 
continent itself. * , * * * * * 

The most remarkable and apparent difference between this 
region and those of the States of the Union generally, and 
that which, perhaps, creates as much as any other one cause, 
the difference in its botanical and geological productions, (s 
the liydromHic state of the atmosphere ; for, while the plants 
and animals assume new forms in life, the crust of the earth, 
the soil, and the rocks, are everywhere familiar, and have 
many types, indeed, fac-similes, over the rest of the Ameri- 
can continent." 

" It is very arid ; but this is also the character of all the 
country north of the tropics, and west of the lOOtli meridian 
of longitude, until you reach the last slope of the Pacific — a 



69 

narrow belt, seldom exceeding two hundred miles in width, 
and sometimes not more than ten. The zone extending from 
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacitic, embracing the boundary, 
contains a large proportion of arid lands ; yet this dry region 
is, perhaps, narrower on the line of boundary, than on any 
portion of the continent north of it, within the limit of the 
United States, and is occasionally refreshed by showers in 
the summer season, and so far presents an advantage over 
the arid belt to the north * -j^ «• v:- * 

It is the slope toward the sea, of this range of mountains (the 
coast range,) which forms the western boundary of the arid 
region, and is, in my judgment, the only continuous agricul- 
tural country west of the 100th meridian. There are many 
detached valleys and basins aiibrding facilities for irrigation, 
where the cereals, the vine, and all the plants which conduce 
to the comfort of man, are produced lu'xuriantly ; but they 
form the exception, rather than the general rule, and are sep- 
arated by arid plains or mountains. * * " " * 
The remaining mountain feature of North America, is the Ap- 
palachian. * -» * * -;f * * v;- * 
Persons familiar with its character, as most who read this 
memoir are, will scarcely be able to comprehend, still less to 
believe, the character given to the western and less favored 
regions, described in this report." 

" In a fanciful and exaggerated description given by many 
of the character of the western half of this continent, some 
have no doubt been influenced by a desire to favor particular 
routes of travel for the emigrants to follow ; others by a de- 
sire to commend themselves to the political favor of those in- 
terested in the settlement and sale of those lands ; but much 
the greater portion by estimating the soil alone, which is gen- 
erally good, without giving due weight to the infrequency of 
the rains, or the absence of the necessary humidity in the 
atmosphere to produce a profitable vegetation. But be the 
motive what it may, the influence has been equally unfortu- 
nate by directing legislation and the military occupation of 
the country, as if it were susceptible of continuous settlement, 
from the peaks of the AUeghanies to the Pacific." 

"The term 'plains' is applied to the extensive inclined sur- 
face reaching from the base of the Eocky Mountains to the 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi, and form a feature in the geography of the western 
country as notable as any other. Except on the borders of 
the streams which traverse the plains in their course to the 
Valley of the Mississippi, scarcely any thing exists worthy of 
the name of vegetation. The soil is composed of the disin- 
tegrated rocks, covered by a loam an inch or two in thickness, 
which is composed of the exuviae of animals and decayed 



70 

vegetable matter. The growth on them is principally a short 
bnt nutritious grass, called Buffalo grass, (Sysleria Dicta- 
torcles). A narrow strip of alluvial soil, supporting a coarse 
grass and a few cotton-wood trees, marks the line of the water 
courses, which are themselves suiKciently few and far be- 
tween. 

" Whatever may be said to the contrary, these plains west 
of the 100th meridian are wholly unsusceptible of sustaining 
an agricultural population, until you reach sufficiently far 
south to encounter the rains from the tropics. 

" The precise limit of these rains I am not prepared to give ; 
but think the Eed Eiver is, perhaps, as far north as they ex- 
tend south of that river." * * * * 

" Whatever may be the opinion of persons interested in 
the more northern lines of travel and projected railway routes 
to the Pacific, we can not shut our e3'es to the existence of 
this desert, on any line of travel south of the South Pass, in 
north latitude 42". I am also of the opinion, that this desert 
within the limits of the United States is narrower and more 
easily passed over by a railway immediately north of the Mex- 
ican boundary than on any parallel to the north of it. An 
attentive perusal of the report of Governor Stevens Avill show 
that even uorth of the South Pass vast tracts of desert and 
arid regions were encountered in the same longitudinal zone, 
which, added to the rigors of the climate, form an almost in- 
surmountable barrier to the project of opening through those 
regions any great highway of travel, either by railway or 
wagon road, between the Atlantic and Pacific States. 

"The full power of the government has been directed to- 
wards establishing posts and. opening these northern lines of 
travel ; yet we have, within the last few months, seen Fort 
Laramie, Fort Pierre, and, I believe, even Fort Kearney, 
abandoned by the government, owing to the absolute sterility 
of the soil, and the impossibility of inducing settlements, or 
raising even vegetables necessary for the use of the troops. 

"The records of the Quartermaster General's office show 
the long continued efforts which the government has made 
to establish these posts as nuclei for settlers, and the utter 
failure to induce settlements, and make the surrounding coun- 
try at all conducive to the support of the troops. . The idea 
of carving out States from that portion of the American con- 
tinent between parallels 35" and 47" and the 100th meridian 
of longitude and the crest of the Sierra Madre, is a chimera. 
The example of the Mormons is often cited to prove the ca- 
pacity of the country to sustain population. They occujayan 
oasis in this great desert, and the power to sustain even the 
population they have is by no means established beyond a 
doubt. On two occasions the grosshoppers were very nearly 



71 

eating them out and prodacing a famine ; and I am very sure, 
if it were not for their pecuhar institutions, which can not 
bear the light of civilization, they could not be induced to 
remain in their isolated and desert home. 

"We learn from the report of Captain Beckwith, United 
States army, how very circumscribed is the area of land which 
is now susceptible of cultivation in this desert, and the fact 
that families sometimes go a great distance from the settle- 
ments for the advantage of obtaining a few acres of ground 
susceptible of cultivation. (See page 65, vol. I, Pacific Rail 
Road Report.) When the truth comes to be admitted, I 
think it will be found that the upper valley of the Rio Bravo, 
embracing New Mexico and a small portion of western Texas, 
is the only tract of land, within the limits mentioned in the 
preceding paragraph, where a body of land is to be found 
susceptible of sustaining any considerable population. And 
yet we see, since our occupation in that Territory in 1846, the 
population has increased but little, if at all." 

General Humphreys, present Chief of Engineers, collating 
these reports, says : 

"The important characteristic feature of Captain Pope's 
route (S'i*^), dwelt upon with so much force by him, is the ex- 
tension westward of fertile laud to near the head-waters of 
the Colorado." * ^ ^ * ^ * 

"At this point (98.\), the change to uncultivatable laud is 
complete, excepting in the river bottoms, which are more or 
less fertile." «- * * * " xhe land now culti- 
vated in New Mexico (35th parallel) is estimated at two hun- 
dred square miles, and the land cultivatable now vacant, ex- 
clusive of the vast region occupied by the Navajoes, Maquis, 
Tanians, and wilder tribes of Indians, at about 4';^)0 square 
miles, giving a total of about 700 square miles. Only one- 
fifth of the bottom land of the Rio Grande, capable of irri- 
gation and cultivation, is now under culture. 

" The valley of the Colorado, between the mouth and the 
35th parallel, contains 1,600 square miles of fertile soil capa- 
ble of irrigation. 

"In neither soil, climate, productions, nor population, nor 
from any other cause, does it possess advantages superior to 
other routes, favoring the construction and working of a rail 
road. 

" The soil west of the meridian of 99*^ is, under the present 
meteorological conditions, uncultivatable, except in limited 
portions of river bottoms and small mountain valleys ; these 
latter, from their great elevation, being better adapted to 
grazing than agricultural purposes. 

" This description is completely in accordance with the ge- 



72 

ological formation and meteorological conditions, the former 
from the meridian of 99'^ west being apparently tertiary, ex- 
cepting in the high mountain passes." 

In speaking of the region north of the South Pass, Captain 
Stanbury says : 

*****" The only large body of cultivatable soil, 
found on this route (38th and 39th), west of the 99th merid- 
ian, is that occupied by the Mormons, on the western foot- 
slopes of the Wahsatch Mountains, forming the eastern bor- 
' der of the Great Basin. The following description of this 
fertile tract is taken from Lieut. Beckwith's Beport upon the 
route, near the 38th and 39th parallels of north latitude : 

" The western range of the Wahsatch mountains, standing 
on the eastern border of the Great Basin, is continuous, ex- 
tending north and south over five degrees of latitude, from 
the vicinity of Little Salt Lake to north of Bear river, broken 
only by the passage of the Sevier, Timpagos, Weber and Bear 
rivers. Its altitude, at 3,000 feet above the general level of 
the country, is quite uniform ; but occasionally it falls down 
to 2,000, and at a few points rises to 4,000 and 4,500 feet. 

" Its western slope is very steep — often inaccessible — pre- 
senting generally a very formidable barrier to the entrance of 
a rail road into the Basin from the east. Many small streams 
descend from it; and as far as its disintegrations have been 
deposited at its base upon the alkali plains of the Basin, it 
forms a rich soil. 

" The line of deposits is narrow, and not continuous, vary- 
ing in width, where it is found from two or three miles to ten 
or twelve at a few points — as opposite Utah and Great Salt 
Lakes, where it occupies the entire space from the mountain 
to the lake shores. It is to this narrow belt of land that the 
Mormon settlements are almost exclusively confined, the iso- 
lated settlements being upon similar deposits in smaller valleys 
at the base of other mountains, the small mountain streams, 
upon which these mountain deposits are richest and chiefly ex- 
ist, being used for irrigation. Respectable crops of wheat 
and oats are produced, and barley has been cultivated to 
some extent ; but corn does not flourish well. The grass of 
this district, and of the higher mountain valleys, is excellent ; 
and potatoes and other roots are produced in abundance, and 
of a superior quality. 

" The area of this body of fertile soil, susceptible of irriga- 
tion by the construction of suitable works, is estimated by 
Lieut. Beckwith at 1,108 square miles." 

The area of the different localities are estimated as fol- 
lows : 



73 

Eastern shore of Great Salt Lake, from Bear Kiver to 

Great Salt Lake City — square miles 350 

Valley of the Jordan river 374 

Valley of Tuilla, west of Quirrah mountains and east of 
Cedar mountains 204 



Total on Great Salt Lake proper . : 928 

Upon the borders of Utah Lake 180 

Total (as above) 1,108 

"About one-tenth of this area is susceptible of irrigation 
without the construction of costly works, and is tilled by the 
Mormons — 27,000 in number — who eagerly seek for and oc- 
cupy small tracts of cultivatable soil, if sufficiently large to 
support a few families, even though at great distance from 
the main settlement." 

Gen. H. continues — " On this route, as on others, from the 
98th to the 99th deg. meridian westward, to the western slopes 
of the Sierra Nevada, a distance of about 1,400 miles, the 
soil is generally uncnlti vat able, the exception being the com- 
paratively limited area of the Mormon settlement, and an oc- 
casional river bottom and mountain valley of small extent." 
Route near 41 st and 42d Parallels. 

"East of the Rocky mountains, the plains are of the same 
character as those described for the 38th and 39th parallels : 

uncultivatahle icent of the 08th meridian.'' 

47th and 49th Parallels — Character of Country, &c. 

" The character of country along the route from St. Paul to 

Seattle may be summed up as follows : 

Miles. 

From St. Paul to Little Falls, fertile soil 109 

From' the Mississippi river at Little Falls to Dead Colt 
Hillock, the soil is fertile — the distance is about 166 

From that point to the crossing of Riviere a' Jacques, 
near the 99th meridian, the change from fertility to an 
uncultivatahle condition takes place 66 

Thence to the crossing of Sun river, a distance of 752 
miles, the prairie is uncultivatahle ; the river bottom of 
the Missouri in part, those of Jacques river, Mouse 
river, and of other streams, possessing a cultivatable 
soil 752 

We have then a mountain region of 404 miles, a well 
wooded district to the Spokane river, with mountain 
valleys of partly cultivatable soil, and prairies of the 
same character 404 



74 

(The sum of the areas of cultivatable soil in the Rocky 
mountaiu regions being about 1,000 square miles.) 

From the Spokane river to the crossing of the Columbia, 
ten miles above Fort Wallah- Wallah, over the barren 
plain of the Columbia 142 

Thence to the Cascades, an uncultivatable, though graz- 
ing district, about 192 

Thence to Seattle, on Puget Sound, over cultivatable 
land, about 194 

Total 2,025 

" So thai of the 2,025 miles from St. Paul to Seattle, on Pu- 
get Sound, we Lave only a space of about 535 miles of fer- 
tile country; the remaining i,490 miles being over uncidti- 
vatable prairie soil, or mounfain land, producing only lumber, 
with the limited exception of occasional river bottoms, moun- 
tain valleys, or prairie." 

I will give next some extracts from the report of the Secre- 
tary of War of the United States, based upon the reports of 
the army officers, and upon the resume above given b}^ Gen. 
Humphreys, of their reports. 

Route near the 47th and 39th Parallels. 

" From the foregoing sketch, it will be perceived that the 
lines of exploration must traverse three difterent divisions or 
regions of country, lying parallel to each other, and extend- 
ing north and south through the whole of the western pos- 
sessions of the United States. The first is that of the coun- 
try between the Mississippi and the eastern edge of the sterile 
belt, having a varying width of from 500 to 600 miles. The 
second is the sterile region, varying in width from of from 200 
to 400 miles; and the third, the mountain region, having a 
breadth of from 50(J to 1)00 miles. 

" The concurring testimony of reliable observers had indi- 
cated that the second division, or that called the sterile region, 
was so inferior in vegetation and character of soil, and so 
deficient in moisture, that it Iiad received, and probably deserved, 
the name of desert. This opinion is confirmed by the recent 
explorations, which prove that the soil of the greater part of 
this region is, from the constituent parts, necessarily sterile ; 
and that of the remaining part, although well constituted for 
fertility, is, from the absence of rains at certain seasons, ex- 
cept where capable of irrigation, as uncultivatable and unpro- 
ductive as the other. 

"This general character of extreme sterility likewise be- 
longs to the country embraced in the mountain region. From 



75 

the western slopes of the Rocky mountains to the 112th me- 
ridian, or the western limit of the basin of the Colorado, the 
soil generally is of the same formation as that lying east of 
that mountain crest, mixed, in the latitudes of 35 and 40 deg., 
with igneous rocks ; and the region being one of great aridity, 
especially in the summer, the areas of cultivatable lands are 
limited. The western slopes of the highest mountain chains 
and spurs within this region being of a constitution favorable 
to fertilitj', and receiving much larger depositions of rain than 
the plains, have frequently, in their small valleys, a luxuriant 
growth of grasses, which sometimes clothes the mountain 
sides ; and where the wash is deposited on mountain stream 
or river bottom, the soil is fertile, and can he cultivated, if the 
elevations are not too great, and the means of irrigation availa- 
ble. Such mountain valleys and river bottoms exist iipon all 
the routes, and the difference in the areas found m the diifer- 
ent latitudes is not sufficiently great to be of any consequence 
in determining the question of a choice of a route. It is 
probable that all the routes are nearly on an equality in this 
respect. The cultivatable valleys of the Rocky mountain re- 
gion, near the route of the -47 th parallel, do not probably ex- 
ceed an area of i,000 square miles; though there are exten- 
sive tracts of fine grazing lands. In this latitude, the great, 
sterile, basaltic plain of the Columbia, and the barren table 
lands, spurrs, and mountain masses of the Cascade Range, 
principally occupy the space between the Coeur de Alene 
mountains and the main chain of the Cascade system. In 
this area, where the rocks are principally of igneous origin, 
there are occasional valleys of cultivatable soil. Tlie western 
slopes of the Cascade mountains descend to the borders of 
the Puget Sound. 

"On the roates of the 41st and 38th parallels, in the region 
under consideration, the only large body of soil capable of 
productive cultivation, by the construction of suitable works 
for irrigation, is that of the i^asin of the Great Salt Lake, 
estimated to be 1,108 square miles in extent, about one-tenth 
part of which being susceptible of cultivation, without the 
construction of irrigating canals, is now cultivated by the 
Mormons. Here, also, are extensive grazing lands." 

"The great elevated plain of the Rocky mountains, in lati- 
tude 41 degrees and 42 degrees, and that of latitude 38 de- 
grees, CciUed the San Luis valley, are covered with wild sage ; 
the narrow border of grass found upon the streams being the 
chief, almost the only, production capable of supporting ani- 
mal life. The slopes of the mountains boundiig them are 
covered with grass. 

"The plains of the Great Basin, whose greatest width (500 
miles) is in latitude 41 deg. are, with the exception heretofore 



76 

stated, entirely sterile, and either bare, or imperfectly <^oy- 
ered with a growth of wild sage. When a stream or lake is 
found in this desolate region, its immediate borders generally 
support a narrow belt of grass and willows; the former being 
also found on the mountaifj slopes, where occasionally a scat- 
tered growth of cedars is likewise seen. Water is found on 
the mountain side. The predominating rocks, from the Wah- 
satch mountains to the Sierra Nevada, are of igneous origin. 
In the southern portion of the Basin the granite rocks are 
more abundant than the volcanic." 

"On the routes of the parallels 35 deg. and 32 deg. the val- 
leys of the Pecos, Rio Grande, Gila, and Colorado of the 
West, contain the largest areas of fertile soil, capable of irri- 
gation and cultivation. That of New Mexico is estimated at 
700 square miles, exclusive of the regions occupied by In- 
dians, of which 200 square miles are now under cultivation. 
Here the grazing land is of very great extent, the table lands, 
as well as the mountain sides, being covered with grass. The 
valley of the Colorado of the West, between its mouth and 
the o5th parallel, contains 1,600 square miles of fertile soil, 
which can be irrigated from the river." 

"The plains south of the Gila in its lower course, and that 
west of the Colorado, extending to the Coast Range, called 
the Colorado Desert, as well as the contiguous portion of the 
Great Basin, are bare and exceedingly sterile in their aspect, 
and closely resemble each other." 

" The soil of the Colorado desert, and much of this as well 
as other parts of the Great Basin, is, however, favorably con- 
stituted for fertility, but the absence of the quickenijir/, essential 
element, water, leaves them utterly unproductive." 

" West of the Coast, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade moun- 
tains, the country is better watered than that just considered, 
and the soil being mostly well constituted for fertility, is pro- 
ductive in proportion to the yearly amount of precipitation, 
and means of irrigation.'''' 

Route near the 47th and 49th. Parallels. 

"The information upon the character of soil upon this 
route does not admit of satisfactory conclusions to be de- 
duced. It is sufficient, however, to show that in this latitude, 
as in that of the Arkansas, the uncultivatable region begins 
about the 99th meridian.'' 

Route near the 41st and 42d Parallels. 

"On this route, as on others, from the 98th or 99fch merid- 
ian to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, a distance of 
1,400 miles, the soil is uncultivatable, excepting the compara- 



77 

tively limited area of the Mormon settlement, and an occa- 
sional river bottom and mountain valley of small extent." 

EOUTE NEAR THE 38tH AND o9tH PARALLELS. 

" TJte soil west of the meridian of 90 deg. is, binder the present 
meterologiccd conditions, uncidtioatahle, except in limited portions 
of river bottoms, and mountain vcdleys ; tliese latter, from their 
great elevcdion, being better adapted to grazing than agricultural 
pur poses. '' 

Route near the 35th Parallel. 

"Near the meridian of 99 deg., the change from fertile land 
to uncidtivcdcdjle is complete, excepting in tlte river bottoms, ivJdch 
are more or less fertile." 

Route near the 32nd Parallel. 

" From the report of Capt. Pope, it would appear that the 
belt of fertile Jaud which lies on the west side of the Missis- 
sippi throughout its length, extends on this route nearly to the 
headwaters of the Colorado of Texas, in about longitude 
102 deg.— that is, about three degrees further west than on 
the more northern routes. The evidence adduced in support 
of this opinion is not, however, conclusive ; and until it is ren- 
dered more complete, the /er/;7e soil must be considered in this, 
as in other latitudes, to terminate about the 09th meridian. 
Thence to the Pacific slopes this route is over uncultiva- 
tablesoil." * -» * ^:- * * 

It will be seen from the above, from the Secretary of 
of War, and also from the report of General Humphreys, 
compiled from the official reports of officers engaged in 
making the various explorations from the southern bound- 
ary of our couutr}^ to British America, that west of the 98th 
and 100th meridians, with the exception, perhaps, of 
1,000 square miles, in the Rocky mountains, on the line of 
the Northern Pacific R. R., and 1,108 square miles in Utah, 
and some 700 square miles in New Mexico, and a narrow strip 
along the foot of the Rocky mountains, all cutivated by irri- 
gation alone, there are no bodies of cullivatable lands until we 
reach the Willamefteand Sacramento valleys, on the Pacijic coast. 

As was heretofore stated, nearly thirty years ago I trav- 
eled over and examined this whole region. I was then over 
tweuty-one, and had, as I thought, my senses about me, and 
my opinion formed then was precisely that of the great offi- 
cers of our Government, quoted above, and such was the 
opinion of every living soul, who, at that time, had travelled 
over and examined this region — that, with the exception of 



78 

spots, and narrow strips along the rivers east of the Eocky 
mountains, and the parks, as they are called, and a few val- 
leys in the midst of the Rock}^ mountains, and at an eleva- 
tion too great to admit of the successful growth of any but 
the quickest growing vegetables. The little narrow strips in 
Hew Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Da- 
kota, Montana and Wyoming, all cutivatable only by irriga- 
tion, and the water for irrigation almost absolutely wanting, 
and impracticable for the purpose, tliere is no cultivatable land 
tcest of the 98th and 100th meridian, except the narrow valleys, 
from five tojifty miles loide, along the Pacific coast, 

Some five or six years ago, my attention was atrracted, in 
New York, to some extensive and elaboratel}^ gotten up land 
maps, and reports of the various projected railway lines in 
this region. I was surprised and astonished at the state- 
ments made here, of the agricultural fitness of the various 
regions referred to. I felt, also, a degree of pleasure, in the 
hope that, perhaps, I might have been mistaken in my opin- 
ion of this region. At that time, every white man in Ala- 
bama, owing to the unrest, and social and political darkness 
and uncertainty that prevailed everywhere in our State, was 
anxious to get away, and find a home for his family, where 
such terrors did not exist. Being of a migratory nature, and 
having but little left now to move, but my wife and children, 
I entered immediately into a re-examination of this subject ; 
and I sa}' here, to my friends in Alabama, that I found that 
large numbeis of people had moved into and settled in this 
region, in the last thirty years, mainly engaged in mining, and 
that a few had large stock ranches immediately along the 
rivers ; but, m an agricultural point of view, it was as sterile 
and inhospitable as I found it thirty years ago. The experi- 
ence of the few who had attempted agriculture, had but added 
to and demonstrated the truth and integrity of the reports 
heretofore made to our Government, by its commissioned 
oflicers, and others specially entrusted with the examination 
of this subject. I will refer, first, to a few recent authorities 
on this subject, and finally to the census of 1870. Many a 
laudatory land lying scheme in the west has been ruined by 
the stern logic of these figures and facts, as given by the Fed- 
eral census. I introduce first, the skeleton ge ological map,"^ 

*Map not ready lor this edition. 



79 

published in this vohime ; a copy from that prepared by the 
distinguished scientists and explorers, Profs. Blake and Hitch- 
cock, for the census of 1870. I have endeavored to have it 
faithfully reproduced ; if it is not, the original can be seen in 
the census of that year. A mere inspection of this map will 
show that the top soils, west of the 98th and 100th me- 
ridians, differs, generally, from those east. 15 ut this does 
not tell the whole story. It will be seen, that in spots 
such as that immediatel}^ around Denver, and along the 
valley of the Eio Grande, the limestone, and the cretaceous, 
the most fertile of the formations of the United States, ap- 
pear on the surface. Where water can be brought on these 
soils, and where the frosts or hot winds, do not interfere, veg- 
etation will grow, luxuriantly, always. But plant even in Ala- 
bama, an acre of either of these rich soils, covering two-thirds 
of the area of the whole State, and admit upon it, even the 
gentle rays of our own summer sun, and expend upon it all 
the arts that labor and science can bring to bear, and exclude 
from it only the God-given showers of rain that fall every- 
where here, and you will have an idea of what these soils will 
produce, w^herethey are in the plains and mountains of the 
west. These little sample spots, as seen on this map, watered 
only by the ingenuity and industry of man, and producing 
crops almost equal to Alabama, Illinois, and New York, have 
furnished the material facts upon which were based the glow- 
ing, and grandiloquent reports, as seen by me in the city of 
New York. I regret my inability to furnish, here, a table of 
rain fall, all over this region, for the last thirty years. It can 
easily be seen at the Smithsonian Institute. I will give the 
following table of rain fall, east of the 97th meridian, in the 
United States, or the meridian of Austin and Fort Worth, 
Texas; Junction city, Kansas; Yankton, Dakota, and the 
Red river of the North, or the meridian where the annual 
dryness, or rain deficiency begins. It is only an exception, if 
rain falls west of this meridian sufficient to raise crops, 
as we will see from the following additional table, which 
is a. fair and average statement of the rain fall, and the man- 
ner in which it falls, all over this vast area, from the 97th 
meridian to the Pacific ocean : 



80 



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100 



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X) CO 


•iinf 


10 10 

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51 <:£ 10 



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81 

It will be seen from the above tables, that the spring and 
summer rains east of the 97th meridian, are generally equal 
to the fall and winter, and that rain falls regularly all through 
the crop growing season. Nebraska, Kansas and Texas are 
also included in this table, but the record in the first table is 
taken onhj for eastern Nehraslm, Kansas, and that part of 
Texas east of Fort Worth. Though as you approach the 
meridian from the east, there is more or less uncertainty in 
having rain enough to make a crop, still, by planting largely 
of wheat and other winter and early growing crops, agricul- 
ture can be safely carried on this far west ; but no farther, 
without irrigation, except immediately along the Gulf coast, 
where the rain region extends farther west on account of the 
moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. 

We will proceed now to describe the other table, which is 
a record of a vast region, equal to nearly half of the United 
States. Commencing at the border of Missouri, and going 
west along latitude 39, we will show the characteristic rain- 
fall features to the Pacific ocean, including Oregon and Cali- 
fornia. From 94 deg. 44 min. to 96 deg. 40 min. is practi- 
cally the rain-fall region of Kansas, as given heretofore. It 
will be seen, that there is a deficiency in the late autumn, 
winter, and early spring rain-fall here, that militates against 
the production of winter wheat, as can be seen by reference 
to the Kansas Agricultural Keport. From 96 deg. 35 min. to 
99 deg. 20 min., or nearly three degrees further west, the rain- 
fall is only 23.61 inches, or two-thirds that of the eastern belt 
of Kansas, less than two-fifths that of Alabama, and expresses 
the same winter deficiency of rain as the eastern belt. The 
strange anomaly is seen in the wheat prodiiction of Kansas, 
(raised almost entirely in the eastern belt) of 1,314,522 bush- 
els of spring wlieat, and only 1,076,676 bushels of winter wheat ; 
whilst in the State of Missouri, immediately adjoining Kan- 
sas on the east, the spring crop is only 1,093,905 bushels, and 
the winter crop 13,222,021 bushels. It would appear that a 
country so bare of rain as Kansas would plant winter wheat 
altogether ; but the rain deficiency here even extends into the 
winter, and they plant both spring and winter wheat, so that 
if they fail, from a drought or deficiency of rain in one, they 
6 



82 

may succeed in the other. This vast section, extending from 
the 100th meridian to the western border of Kansas, has an 
average rain-fall of only 13.34 inches, or about one-third that 
of the eastern belt, and one-fifth that of Alabama. It sprin- 
kles here every month in the year — spring 4.47, summer 5.25, 
autumn 2.41, and winter 1.18 inches. The rain-fall here suits 
neither wheat, corn, nor any other crop. The Legislature of 
the State of Kansas, through its Agricultural Bureau, has had 
the manhood to say so, in the following language, referring to 
three divisions of the State : 

" The eastern belt will admit of most diversified grains and 
grasses, and is most admirably adapted to stock raising. 

" The middie belt is well adapted to stock raising. Spring 
wheat will stand about an equal chance with its winter rival. 
It is the experience of the farmers of eastern Kan-as that 
there is greater danger of winter than spring droughts, so far 
as this important crop is concerned. If it is too dry, the raking 
prairie winds will blow the soil from the roots, which then 
wither and die. The eastern belt has no moisture to spare dur- 
ing the ivinfer months, and while the difference between the 
eastern and middle belts is only .93 of an inch, it is enough 
to equalize the two crops. Spring grains of all kinds, except 
in the eastern half of this belt, will take preference to corn 
and potatoes. Flax and broom corn will succeed well. 

" The western belt is a good country for stock. It is proba- 
ble that flax will succeed there, and in some localities in the 
bottoms, spring wheat and other small grains ; but to go there, 
to engage in diversified industries, will only result in disap- 
pointment and loss. It is a fraud n-pon the immigrant and his 
family, and a positive injury to tJie good name of the State. If 
the immigrant locates upon the western border understand- 
ingly, and engages only in such industries as the soil and cli- 
mate will warrant, he will succeed." 

We have here, under the highest authority of the State of 
Kansas in 1874, a confirmation of the figures I have given. 

The next section, from 103 deg. to 105 deg., reaches Den- 
ver, at the foot of the Rocky mouutain, and the rain-fall is 
12.98 inches. It will be seen, by reference to the geological 
map, that we have reached here, at Denver, a little strip of 
the rich soils of Alabama, and here, by extensive works of 
irrigation, a splendid agriculture is carried on — truly an oasis 
in an impracticable desert. The circumstances all combine to 
make irrigation a success. A rich soil, and at the very gate- 



83 

wa}' of the mountains, intercepting easily the only rivers that 
contain any water in this region, before they reach the arid 
and parched plains between Dever and Missouri and Arkan- 
sas. Extensive mining operations are carried on here, and 
there is now, and has been for years, a full market for every 
thing produced from the soil. 

Whilst here, I will insert an extract from Lieut. Wheeler's 
recent report to the government, on the subject of irrigation 
east of the Rocky mountains : 

"As the dry season begins in June, and continues until au- 
tumn, all farming operations are entirely dependent upon ar- 
tificial irrigation." * * * * * * 

"The extent to which irrigation of the plains can be car- 
ried is now a question of much importance, and, having been 
formally presented in a message by the President, deserves at 
least passing reference here. These plains are not, as is com- 
monly supposed by those who have not seen them, a vast level, 
broken only by occasional waves. On the contrary, the sur- 
face is exceediGgly irregular, and though in the distance re- 
sembling a plain, it is in fact anything else, being much torn 
up by erosive agencies. Only a small portion of this vast area 
can ever he cultivated by irrigation. That which is available, 
lies along the larger streams and their tributaries, some of 
which are now permanently dry, and consists of the flood 
plains, and the older terraces rising above them. These pre- 
sent the level surface, which is essential to successful irriga- 
tion. Of such laud, immediately available, it is estimated 
that Colorado, east of the mountains, has in all barely four 
millions of acres, or about six thousand two hundred square 
miles, an area scarcely larger than a strip extending from 
Denver to the New Mexico line, with a width of thirty miles. 
It might be possible, by extensive and very costly works, to 
double this area, but not more. Under such conditions, one 
can hardly fail to doubt the feasibility of enterprise to recover 
any considerable portion of Colorado by irrigation. 

" Even were Colorado, east of the mountains, one unbroken 
plain, the difficulty would be quite as seiious. To irrigate, 
one must have an abundant supply of water. As the rain 
falling on the plains is uncertain, in amount, it can afford no 
assistance, and the whole supply must be drawn from the 
mountain region. The problem, then, would be to irrigate, 
in Colorado alone, nearly sixty tliousand square miles, with the 
water that falls on less than eleven thousand. Could this 
■water be husbanded in such a manner as to lose none, this 
would not be impracticable,. for irrigation is needed only from 
the beginning of June until, at farthest, the early part of 



84 

August ; but such a husbanding is impossible, A large part 
of the ivater previpifated upon the mountains never reaches the 
plains by the streams, and were irrigation fully carried on along 
the upper Arkansas and the upfer South Platte, only a small 
portion woiild pass east of the m.ountains. As it is, the Arkan- 
sas, where it issues from the mountains at Canon cit^, is very 
much smaller than at Pleasant Valley, only thirty miles 
above. More than this : The atmosphere on the plains is so 
dry, that the temperature frequently falls 40 degrees without 
inducing deposition of dew. It is clear that the loss by evap- 
oration would be enormous. The porous soil would absorb 
an equal amount, and from these two causes not less than 
half the water entering the canals would be lost within sixty 
miles. The amount of water issuing from the mountains is 
not sufficient to bear this loss, and still supply what is needed 
for irrigation. Careful calculation has shoivn that the water of 
all the streams would scarcely suffice to irrigate the ivhole coun- 
try to a distance of thirty-five miles from the base of the moun- 
tains. The Platte itself, though constantly receiving tributa- 
ries, diminishes in importance as it descends, until at Jules- 
burg, during the agricultural season, it is comparatively in- 
significant." Would that I could quote more from this 
report. 

We come next, to the mountain region in which are situ- 
ated the celebrated, and much written about parks and 
the lovely little valleys from the head of the Yellow- 
stone and the Missouri, to the Eio Grande. These parks 
and valleys are small in extent, and extend from British 
America along the Eocky mountains to the Rio Grande. 
Snow begins falling in September, and lays on the ground un- 
til the middle of May or the first of June, and only the quick- 
est growing crops can be produced in these valleys, on ac- 
count of frost. Even stock is driven out in the winter, and 
the rain fall is so little, during the season, that irrigation is 
necessary to raise crops any and everywhere. The record 
at Deer Lodge in Montana, and at Fort Defiance, will give 
the snow and rain fall, in these mountain valleys. We come 
next, to Utah, and the Great Basin, between the Rocky 
mountains and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains, a 
region of no summer rains, and little at any time. The re- 
cord is given as Utah in the table, and as the Dalles in Ore- 
gon, and at Fort Yuma, on the Gila. The total rain fall at 
Fort Y^ima is 3.15, Utah o.98, and at the Dalles in Oregon 



85 

13.81 inclies. It is not to be wondered at, that this rainless 
region of 800,000 square miles, or a country nearly as large 
as all the Southern States from Maryland to Texas, should 
be characterized as a sterile, inhospitable, and arid desert. 
The rain fall is not sufficient in Winter to cool the earth, 
parched by the Summer sun, much less to start even a growth 
of vegetation. The small streams issuing from both moun- 
tain chains, furnish, through irrigation, the only hope for ag- 
riculture here, and after the hot winds and barren sands have 
taken their share, but little water is left for this purpose here. 
The ne^t section across the Sierra Nevada and Cascade 
mountains, to the Sacramento and Willamette valleys, a dis- 
tance of two hundred miles in length, from Mexico to British 
America, covering 300,000 square miles, as occupied by great 
mountains and rocks, a large portion perpetually covered 
with snow, totally and entirely unfit for any kind of agricul- 
ture, and can never be reclaimed. We come now, to the nar- 
row valleys ; the Williamette in Oregon, about the size of our 
Valley of North Alabama, coustitutiug agricultural Oregon, 
and the Sacramento and Coast Range, constituting agricultu- 
ral California, a little larger only in practicable, cultivatable 
area, even hy irrigalion, than the Prairie or Black Belt of Ala- 
bama. None of the fertile rocks of creation, as can be seen 
from the geological map, can be found here. But only the 
poorer tertiary, and alluvial soils are cultivated in these 
valleys. There is a peculiarity in the climate and rain 
fall of these valleys of the Pacific coast, that suits admirably 
the production of wheat. But this is the whole of their agri- 
culture. The rain fall begins in Oregon, or rather in the 
Williamette valley, which is Oregon, in November, and con- 
tinues until May, and in a small degree through May and 
June, and then ever3:thiug is parched up. But Winter wheat 
is through then ; corn and the other Summer crops keep up 
a straggling fight, and if it happens to rain more, they succeed, 
if it don't they icither and die. 

" In California, it begins to rain in November, and ends 
promptly on, or before, the first day of May, and nothing 
grows afterwards, unless watered artiticialh\ What I have 
written here, I have seen and felt myself, and it is all true. 
These last pages, and the geological map, are a mirror of the 
continent svest of the 97th meridian, and within the limits of 



86 

the United States. Now, I would ask any Alabama farmer, 
which of these regions he would swap his country for. Could 
you make a crop in the middle belt of Kansas, with only 
2-5ths the rain fall that we have here in Alabama? In the 
eastern belt of Kansas, I admit you could not be worsted 
much, as the soil is rich, and rain fall here is 34.46 inches, or 
59-100, or more than one-half of the average rain fall of Ala- 
bama. You are warned by the Kansas State government, 
however, not to go to the western belt for agriculture, as the 
rain fall in this meridian, and east of the Rocky mountains, 
throughout the United States, in only 13.34 inches, or about 
2-10 the rain fall of Alabama, What then ? Have you got 
money enough to turn a great river, like the Alabama, all 
over the sandy deserts and mountains of Colorado, Montana, 
Utah, and Nevada, to get water for your stock, and to irrigate 
your hot, thirsty soils? Will you go to California and Ore- 
gon, where all the rich, and at present cultivatable lands, are 
owned under the Mexican or other grants and claims, and 
beg the poor privilege of cultivating other people's land, 
starve, or dig a great irrigating ditch ? I have tried it, friends 
in Alabama, and I stalled at the first step ; the absolute im- 
possibility of getting timber for fencing my farm, to say noth- 
ing of the-greater difficulty of getting water." 

I could add page upon page, and volume upon volume, 
upon this subject, all testifying the same. But is this not 
enough ? I will add a little more, of a more recent date. I 
regret my inability to get all the recent information on this 
subject. I will quote first, from the work of Mr. Spence, an 
Englishman of distinction, and from his endorsements, a man 
of real merit, comparing the British northwest with ours, he 
says : 

" In comparing the advantages and resources of this great 
northwest of the Dominion of Canada, with the west and 
northwest of the United States, we must bear in mind that 
the rate of area absorbed by settlement in ten years in the 
Western States of America, was 170,955 square miles, and 
continually increasing ; and that from the report of explora- 
tions, made under the auspices of the United States Govern- 
ment, of the region between the Mississippi and the Rocky 
mountains, the startling facts are revealed, that the ivestern 
progress of its population has nearly reached the extreme tcest- 
em limit of the areas available for settlement ; and that the 
whole space west of the 98th parallel, embracing one-half of 
the entire surface of the United States, is an arid and desolate 
waste, tvith the exception of a narroiv belt of rich land along the 
Pacijic coast y 



87 

"That rich, but narrow belt, referred to, has ah-eady been 
blocked out with the prosperous States of California and 
Oregon, with a population of 1,200,000. This momentous 
fact was first announced by Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian 
Institute, from whom we quote as follows : ' The whole space 
to the west, between the 98th meridian and the Rocky moun- 
tains, is a barren waste, over which the eye may roam to the 
extent of the visible horizon, with scarcely an object to break 
the monotony. The country may also be considered in com- 
parison with other portions of the United States, a wilder- 
ness unfitted for the use of the husbandman, although, in 
some of the mountains, as at Salt Lake, by means of irriga- 
tion a precarious supply of food may be obtained." 

It is not necessary to quote the detailed description of this 
American Sahara. The concluding words of Prof. Henry are 
more to our purpose. He says : 

" We have stated thnt the entire region west of the 98th 
degree of west longitude, with the exneption of a email por- 
tion of western Texas and the main border along the Pacific, 
is a country of comparatively little value to the agriculturist, 
and perhaps it will astonish the reader if we draw his atten- 
tion to the fact, that the line which passes southward from 
Lake Winnepeg to the Gulf of Mexico, will divide the ivliole 
sur/ace of the United States into two nearlif equal parts. This 
statement, when fully appreciated, will serve to dissipate some 
of the dreams which have been considered realities as to the 
destiny oi the western part of the North American continent. 
Truth, however transcends even the laudable feelings of pride 
and country, and in order properly to direct the pohcy of this 
great confederacy (the United States), it is necessary to be 
well acquainted with the theatre in which its future history is 
to be re-enacted." 

Again, there is something almost appalling in the picture 
of the region bordering the northern Pacific in Dakota Terri- 
tory, the northern boundary of which is the fertile belt of our 
North-west. It is presented in a letter to the New York Tri- 
bune, by Maj. Gen. Hazen, U. S. A., from which we select ex- 
tracts, which should not fail to carry conviction to the most 
obtuse intellect. This officer has been stationed at a military 
post, at the mouth of the Yellowstone river, about two de- 
grees south of our boundary line in longitude 103 ; and hav- 
ing been there for some years, he is in a far better condition 
to judge of the facts than the most expert and observant of 
transient visitors could possibly be. He gives for the first 



time a glimpse of the barrenness and desolation of the route, 
which the Northern Pacific Railway was to develop in that re- 
gion, which is inexpressibly shocking, and should act as a 
serious warning to emigrants and capitalists in Europe inyest- 
ing in United States railway lands. He says : 

" For two years I have been an observer of the efforts, upon 
the part of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, to make 
the world believe this section to be a valuable agricultural one, 
and, with many others, I have kept silent, although knowing 
the falsity of their representations, while they have pretty 
fully carried their point in establishing a popular belief favor- 
able to their wishes. 

"When reading such statements of its fertility as appear in 
the article entitled ' Poetry and Philosophy of Indian Sum- 
mer,' in that most estimable periodical, Harpers Ilonthly, of 
December, 1873, — in which are repeated most of the shame- 
ful falsehoods so lavishly published in the two years, as ad- 
vertisements in the interests of that company, and perhaps 
by the same pen — a feeling of shame and indignation arises 
that any of our countrymen, especially wheu so highly favored 
with the popular good will and benefits, should deliberately 
indulge in such wicked deceptions. 

" The theoretical isothmericals of Capt. Maury and Blod- 
gett, which have gi^en rise to so much speculation, and are 
used so extravagantly by those who have a use for them, al- 
though true along the Pacific coast, are not found to have 
been true, by actual experience and observations, in this mid- 
dle region." # * * * 

" The past season, as seen by meteorological report, has 
been exceptionally rainy and favorable for agriculture here, 
and the Post has, with great care, and by utilizing all the avail- 
able season, made an extensive garden, with the following re- 
sults : 

" The garden is situated immediately on the river bank, 
about two feet above high water. Potatoes, native corn, cab- 
bage, early-sown turnips, early peas, early beans, beets, car- 
rots, parsnips, salsify cucumbers, lettuce, radishes and aspara- 
gus have grown abundantly and have matured. Melons, 
pumpkins and squashes have not ma^ured. Tomatoes did 
not turn red. American corn (early) reached roasting ears. 
Onions, with wheat and oats, matured at Ft. Bei-thold, D. T., 
150 miles below, on the Missouri river. I am told by those 
who have been here a long time, that this may be taken as a 
standard for what may be expected the most favorable seasons 
on the infimediate hanks of the streams. The native corn ma- 
tures in about ten weeks from planting. It puts out its ears 
from six to eight inches from the ground, and has a soft white 



89 

grain, without any flinty portion, and weighs about two-thirds 
as much as other corn. 

" My own quarters are situated on the second bench of the 
banks of the Missouri, about fifty feet above that stream, and 
six hundred yards away from it. And to raise a flower gar- 
den ten feet by forty, the past two years, has required a daily 
sprinkhng of three barrels of water, for which we were repaid 
by about three weeks of flowers. 

" The site of this post is supposed to be exceptionally fruit- 
ful, but I have before me a letter of Mr. Joseph Anderson of 
St. Paul, Minn., who was hay contractor at this post in 1872. 
His letter states that, in order to find places to cut the hay 
required by his contract tliat season, 900 tons, he was com- 
pelled to search over a space of country on the north side of 
the river twenty-five miles in extent iu each direction from 
the post, or some 400 square miles, and there was none thick 
enough to be cut for as great a distance beyond. Respecting 
the agricultural value of this country, after leaving the excel- 
lent ■)< lieaf groitnng valley of the Bed River of the North, follow- 
ing westward 1,000 miles to the Sierras, excepting the very 
limited bottoms of the small streams, as well as those of the 
Missouri and the Yellowstone, from a few yards in breadth to 
an occasional water washed valley of one or two miles, and 
the narrow valleys of the streams of Montana already settled, 
and a small area of timbered country in northwest Idaho, 
(probably one fifteenth of the whole,) this country will not 
produce the fruits and cereals of the east, for want of mois- 
ture, and can iu no way be artificially irrigated, and will not, 
in our day and generation, sell for one penny an acre, except 
through fraud or ignorance ; and most of the laud here ex- 
cepted will have to be irrigated artificially. I write this know- 
ing full well it will meet with contradiction, but the contradic- 
tion will be a falsehood. The country between the one hun- 
dredth meridian and the Sierras — the Rio Grande to the Brit- 
ish possessions— will never be developed into populous States, 
for the want of moisture. Its counterpart is found in the plains 
of Northern Asia and Western Europe. We look iu vain for 
those expected agricultural settlements along the Kansas and 
Union Pacific Railroads, between these two lines, and twenty 
years hence the search will be quite as fruitless. We have in 
Nevada and New Mexico fair samples of what these popula- 
tions will be. My statement is made from the practical expe- 
rience and observations of eighteen years of military service 
as an officer of the army, mvich of Avhich has been upon the 
frontier ; and having ])assed the remainder of my life a farmer. 

"For confirmation of what I have said, I respectfully refer 
the reader to Gen. G. K. Warren, of the Engineer Corps of 
the army, who made a scientific exploration of this country, 



90 

extending through several years, and h«.s given us our only 
accurate map of it ; or to Prof. Hayden, for the past several 
years engaged upon a similar work. Tlie testimony of Gov. 
Stevens, Gen. Fremont, and Lieut. Mullans, is that of enthu- 
siastic travelers and discoverers, whose descriptions are not 
fully borne out by more prolonged and intimate knowledge of 
the country." 

"Herr Hass, the agent of the Berlin and Vienna banks, 
sent out to examine the country, could easily say the country is 
good, as long as he advised his people to invest no mone}^ in 
it ; and it is doubtful if that remark was based upon a suffi- 
ciently authoritative investigation of the country to merit the 
credence given it. Certianly it is incorrect. And especially 
valueless is the testimony of men of distinction of our own 
country, Avho are not agriculturists, but have taken journeys 
in the fruitful months of the year to the lied River of the 
North, to the rich valleys of Montana, or to the enchant- 
ing scenery of Puget Sound, except upon those particular 
points." 

" I am prepared to substantiate all IliOjVe here said, so far as 
such matters are susceptible of proof, but from their nature many 
things herein referred to, must to many people, loait the action of 
the great solvent — Time. 

"I have no personal feeling in this matter since, rather on 
the contrary, the rail roads in these western countries amelio- 
rate the condition of troops serving here, but I would prefer 
to see these roads based upon honesty, and the needs of the 
country, commensurate with their cost. Nor can I see much 
difference in the man who, in business, draws a cheque upon 
a bank where he has no money, and selling bonds secured by 
lands which have no value." 

" I will say to those holding the bonds of the Northern Pa- 
cific Rail Road, that by changing them into good lands now 
owned by the road in the Valley of the Red River of the 
North, and east of that point, is the only means of saving 
themselves from their total loss. 

"W. B. Hazen. 

"Fort Buford, D. T., Jan. 1, 1874" 

We have here the statement of a commissioned officer of 
the United States army. Truth was a part of the ethics of 
the United States army, before the war, and 1 have no rea- 
son to believe it is not so still. The opportunities, education, 
and training of the commissioned officers of the army, fit 
them above all other classes of our people, for giving correct 
and reliable information on this, or any other subject en- 
trusted to their care and examination, and / again say it is 



91 

trne,frorn my oivn hiou^edge. I insert here a synopsis of a 
compilation b}^ the same author, (Mr. Spence,) demonstrating 
and sustaining, by Blodgett and other eminent American offi- 
cial authorities, the following propositions : 

"1st. That the country west of the 98th meridian, withm 
the United States, is mostly a desert, made such by the ab- 
sence of summer rains," 

"2d. The soils are so much impregnated with salts and 
alkalies as to be destructive to vegetation ; except for the 
sage of the desert, an emblem of an arid and sterile region." 

" 3d. The great variation in temperature, from 80 deg. to 
90 deg. during the day, to the freezing y^oint, and even below 
it at night, is another characteristic of that country." 

"4th. The soils of those regions under discussion, where 
not saline, are so sandy and friable as to prevent the cultiva- 
table grasses, and consequently the green pastures and mead- 
ows, from taking the place of the prairie grasses when these 
are plowed up." 

I here insert two 6ther extracts from Blodgett : 

"These statements show that the region of summer 
droughts — the desert area — begins at the 97th meridian, a 
little v.'est of the Mississipi, and extends from north to south 
over the whole territory of the United States, from the 49tli 
parallel beyond the southern boundary of Texas. From this 
meridian, the 97th, this climatic defect — the want of rain in 
summer — diminishes eastward, but increases westward, rend- 
ering more than half the area of the United States either 
useless as an agricultural country, or very inferior to the 
country east and north of that region." 

"The whole of the eastern slope of the Rocky mountains 
is still, generally, arid, and the loose soil and rapid evapora- 
tion dissipate the rains, and diminish the effect of the fall of 
any certain volume, much below that of any similar rain fall 
on the retentive surface, and soil eastward. On the upper 
plains of Texas, and over all the ]:)lains west of the 100th 
degree of longitude, irrigation is generally necessary to sup- 
port cultivation which requires the summer for its growth, and 
in the valleys, nearest the mountains in the west, it becomes 
more decidedly so, than elsewhere." — Blodgett, p. ij29-30." 

From the geological report of Prof. Hayden, for 1872, of 
examinations of Dakota, Montana, W3^oming, etc., I find the 
following : 

" The second climatological question relates to the rain fall. 
It is well known that on the east side of the plains, as in Min- 
nesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas, the average annual 
rain fall is sufficient to supply the moisture necessary for the 



92 

production of the cereals and other agricultural products. 
On the other hand, it is almost as well known that irrigation 
is necessary at all points on the plains lying along the east 
base of the Rocky mountains. Therefore, it is evident that 
the boundary between these two regions — that of sufficient, 
and that insufficient rains- — must be found somewhere be- 
tween the east base of the Rocky mountains and the west 
lines of the States named. It becomes, therefore, very im- 
portant to determine where this line is. It is true that the 
transition may be gradual and render it difficult to fix it with 
any degree of exactitude, yet it must be possible to deter- 
mine it approximately. The importance of this will scarcely 
be appreciated by those who have not come practically in 
contact with this question ; but the individual who has gone 
beyond this line and opened a farm upon the broad prairie, 
depending upon the rain fall alone to supply his crops, has 
learned by sad experience that knowledge, which ought to be 
supplied to the public. But land speculators and others, who 
are interested in settling up this portion of the West, are 
often too sanguine in their belief in regard to favorable cli- 
matic changes ; or are regardless of the sufferings and hard- 
ships they cause, by a too favorable representation of this 
uncertain section." 

Speaking of Dakota, the Territory west of Minnesota, 
the writer says : ( Prof. Thomas Hayden's Geology.) 

" This Territory has been so recently settled, except a 
small section in the southeast corner, that, but little can be 
said as to its agricultural prospects, save what we can infer 
from an inspection of its surface and soil, added to the slight 
knowledge we possess of its climate. And here the last item 
becomes important in this estimate, as it is known that the line 
of sufficient rain fall is found within its borders." 

Detailing the difficulties in getting timber or coal for fuel, 
lie says : 

"It is true that coal can be brought in, but this will be a 
heavy tax on farmers of small means, who live far back on 
the prairies, and are exhausting all their means and enei'gy 
to start a farm into active operation ; yet this will probably 
be the only method of meeting this necessity, unless corn is 
used for fuel, or forest trees are timely planted and in suffi- 
cient quantity. What is.said here on this point, also applies 
to portions of Nebraska, and, to some extent, to the south- 
west portion of Minnesota. I know there is in the mind of 
the farmer of the States, who has labored hard through the 
hot days of summer in plowing his corn, and in the fall in 
gathering and garnering it, a very strong dislike to the idea 
of using it for fuel ; but the true method of testing this ques- 



93 

tion is to count the cost. If, for instance, sixty bushels of 
com in the ear — about thirty shellecj — will equal, as fuel, one 
ton of coal, (I do not know that this amount is correct ; it is 
but a guess,) will it pay to sell this corn at twenty cents per 
bushel (shelled measure) and buy coal at $8 or $9 per ton^ 
besides the haulius? to and from a depot ? It is a simple ques- 
tion of lig'ures, not fanc}^, and it would be well if some one 
properly situated to do so, would give us some practical in- 
formation on this subject." 

He further says : 

" In closing this brief account of the agricultural resources 
of eastern Dakota, I should sttjte that, after carefully weigh- 
ing all the data I have been able to obtain, together with my 
own observations, I am satisfied that all luest of James River 
Valley must he counted as in a district not sufficiently supplied 
tvith rain. Taking all the records of the rain-fall which have 
been kept in the Territory for the five j^ears from lb67 to 
1871, inclusive, we find the average yearly amount to be only 
14.09 inches less than half that of Minnesota, Iowa, or east- 
ern Nebraska. And that this average is not far from correct, 
is shown by the'fact that there is no very great variation from 
it in either of the years included — 1867, 13.78 inches ; 1868, 
14.03 inches; 1869, 14.17 inches; 1870, 15.12 inches; 1871, 
13.35 inches. The meteorological data, therefore, so far as 
obtained, corroborate the opinion I have advanced on this 
subject." Again : 

" Although the country west of the second crossing of the 
Cheyenne is well adapted to grazing and pastoral pursuits, 3'et 
I am satisfied that the average rain-fall is insufficient for prac- 
tical agricultural operations. There may be seasons when the 
supply ma}^ be sufficient to produce moderately good crops of 
the cereals, but I think these will form the exceptions instead 
of the rule. It is true, no sufficient experiments have been 
made to test this question, and it is due to the welfare of the 
Territory and those who are largely interested in this matter, 
that I should state that my opinion is not based upon direct 
experiments in this immediate section, and that the soil, as a 
general thing, is good ; also, that it is very probable that the 
bottom lands along the streams will form an exception to this 
rule. I should also state that Mr. Koberts, the Chief En- 
gineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, expresses a somew^hat 
more favorable opinion in regard to this section. He may be 
right, and I may be wTong; I only give my opinion, which is 
based on certain evidence which will be more fully set forth 
in my report on the Climatology of the West." 

In speaking of Nebraska, he saj- s : 

" I am now satisfied that Platte Valley can produce crops 



94 

of the cereals without irrigation farther west than I had for- 
mer! j supposed. Not that the amouDt of rain which falls on 
this vallej is any greater than that which falls on the adjoin- 
ing plains, but the moisture is longer retained." * * * * 
*' While I am of this opinion in regard to this great valley, on 
the other hand I am now pretty thoroughly convinced that 
the sufficient supply of rains on the upper plains does not ex- 
tend as far west as I had formerl}^ supposed. For southern 
Nebraska, I do not think this can safely be placed any farther 
west than Fort Kearney, except along the immediate valley 
of Eepublican Fork, and north of the Platte this line will pro- 
hahly bend considerably east^ 

From the report of the BurSau of Agriculture, I found sub- 
stantially the same facts as above. The area of possibly cul- 
tivatable soils, by extensive works of irrigation, is somewhat 
enlarged. In Utah, it is estimated at almost double, or 
amounts to nearly 2,000 square miles, or about two per cent, 
of the- whole area of the Territory. Wyoming appears to 
have a little larger per cent. oP cultivable area. Colorado 
6,000 square miles, as an extreme amount, an^d that only by 
utihzing, and using the last drop of water in the Aikansas 
and Platte rivers, as they issue from the mountains, leaving 
tlwm dry on the plains. Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon, 
and the rest of Oregon outside of the Williamette Valley, get 
worse the more they are examined and reported upon. There 
are fifty thousand square miles of cultivatable soil in the 
State of Alabama, upon which the rain falls everywhere suffi- 
ciently for all the purposes of agriculture. There are not 
fifty thousand square miles in all the territory in the United 
States west of the 98th and 100th meridians, excluding Cali- 
fornia, Oregon, and Washington Territory, as I know person- 
ally nothing of this Territory — that can, by any ordinary ex- 
penditure of mone}', be made equal in the production of agri- 
cultural values, to the 50,000 square miles covered by the 
territory of Alabama. Alabama must be a great and rich 
country. It is, when compared with the county above re- 
ferred to, as we will now see, hy referring to the agricultural 
records of the census of 1870 for this region, and comparing 
with Alabama in I860, when her soils were properly cultivated 
and tilled. I place here a table of the crop products of all 
the States and Territories, in 1870, fifom the meridian of no 
summer rains to the Pacific ocean : 



95 





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96 

It will be seen, that the population of all these States and 
Territories, east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade range of 
mountains, and west of the region of deficient rain-fall 97", 
is 329,566, present and accounted for, besides hundreds of 
thousands tramping all over this barren region trying to as- 
certain for what purpose it was created. The soldiers and 
Indians taken care of by the government, and fortune hunt- 
ers unenumerated, would swell the number of consumers to 
600,000 souls in 1870. New Mexico has been settled and cul- 
tivated for over two hundred years, and has now over one 
hundred thousand enumerated people, scattered along the 
valleys of the Eio Grande, dependent entirely for agricultural 
support upon the water of that river, as much so as are the 
Egyptians upon the water of the Nile ; and if the Rio Grande 
fails, as it does sometimes, a famine is the result. This Ter- 
ritory produced, in 1870, crop values to the amount of only 
$710,185, or less than any half dozen townships in Montgom- 
ery county, Ala. Utah has been settled for 30 years, and, 9s 
we have been told by the best authority, agriculture was their 
chief and only business until of late years ; and every availa- 
ble acre has been fully occupied, irrigated and cultivated by 
this industrious people, of nearly one hundered thousand 
souls, besides an innumerable company of strangers to be 
fed. Yet the total value of this specially and fully developed 
Territory, as compared to Alabama, is scarcely half, in 1870, of 
that of the single county of Montgomery in 1860. I know 
that crop products in all this desolate region sell for more than 
they did in Alabama in 1860, but that is just what I am driv- 
ing at. If the grain crops, in a country producing nothing but 
grain, sell for a greater price than in countries where grain is 
only a secondary product, and produced only for a support, 
the agricultural surroundings must be at fault, and they are. 
Leaving out the innumerable company of strangers and strag- 
glers, their per capita crop productions in 1870 were only 
$1,876,031, or about one-half of that of the count}'^ of Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, in 1860; and yet we call this country an 
oasis in a desert — Nevada, a State full fledged, with Senators 

and Hepresentatives in Congress, for years. They must 

have had people, or they could not have bean a State ; and 
these people must have been like other people, and had to be 



97 

fed. They were also isolated, and cut off from the Williamette 
and Sacramento valleys, the only life-giving soil in the far 
west, by mountains ever and always covered with snow, and 
separated by vast arid deserts, from the rain country of Iowa 
and Missouri ; and yet their total crop productions, including 
hay or wild grass as the largest of all, amounted in 1870 to 
only $646,818, or less than one-fifth that of the single, and not 
exceptional, county of Montgomery, Alabama, in 1860. Col- 
orado, also, a State now, and figuring in the census largely in 
hay or wild grass, cut and cured in their mountain parks, im- 
practicable for agriculture on account of frost, and fed away 
in winter to keep cattle from starving and dying in this in- 
clement winter climate, produced in 1870 only $661,207 worth 
of agricultural products, or one-fifth of the agricultural pro- 
ducts of the single county of Montgomery, Alabama. Do 
you not begin to shake a little, on my above stated proposi- 
tion, that the soil of Alabama is worth intrinsically more for 
the production of agricultural values, and always laill he, than 
the whole of this region of one thousand miles square ? You 
will do so, when you see it as I have. It is unnecessary and 
useless to cumber this paper with a further comparison of the 
crop products of this region. We are told by Major General 
Hazen that every agricultural spot in the northern part of 
this section is taken up and occupied now; and we are told 
by the Agricultural Bureau of our government that it is a 
matter of great satisfaction to know that this vast region is 
now (1870) capable of perhaps sustaining their mining popu- 
lation. They must have learned, like the Irishman's horse, 
to live without eating — as I see no other way of sustaining 
them by the agriculture of this region, as fully detailed in the 
census of that year, and repeated in the statistical department 
of every agricultural report since. 

The products of the soil of Montgomery count}^ Alabama, 
in 1860, if turned into money, will buy in Kansas City, Mo., 
to-day, more of each and every article of agriculture, than 
all these States and Territories produced in 1870, and will 
produce even this year. Nebraska is nothing, and never will 
be, in an agricultural point of view, when compared with such 
countries as Alabama. The agricultural capabilities of the 
7 



98 

unsettled parts of Kansas have been fully defined heretofore, 
and are nothing. There remains only Oregon and Californiaj 
or rather the Williamette and Sacramento and Coast Eange 
Valleys of California, to speak of now. Washington Territory, 
as heretofore stated, I know nothing of, and care nothing for. 
Look upon the geological map prepared by Prof. Blake, a 
published here, and you will see a little yellow spot, or rather 
two little yellow spots, in the western part of Oregon, the 
Williamette and Umpqua Valleys. You will find the same 
yellow spots in southern Alabama, indicating soils such as are 
found in Baldwin, Conecuh, and the southern part of Pike 
counties, in this State. The rocks, the water, and the soils 
are identical— no better, no richer, and no poorer, than are 
found in the same yellow spots in the map in Alabama, indi- 
cating the same soils. Yet you are told to leave Alabama and 
go to Oregon, and get good lands, good water, and good 
health. I have drank water in Oregon, and I have drank the 
same water in Alabama. I have had bilious fever in Oregon, 
and the same fevers in Alabama ; and they came from the 
same causes. 

We will see now how the soil products of these valleys 
compare with those of Alabama. I would compare them with 
the same kinds of soil in Alabama, such as we classify as 
poorer soil here, but the South & North Alabama Kailroad, at 
whose instance I am Avriting this book, does not touch any of 
these soils, I will continue the comparison, then, with the 
counties tributary to, and along that great railroad. It will 
be seen from the last table, that the crop values of the whole 
State of Oregon in 1870, measured by the same standard, are 
only $3,171,161, or less than that of our single county of Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, in 1860; and by an inspection of the de- 
tailed census reports, it will be seen that nine-tenths of all 
her crop values are raised in the Williamette and Umpqua 
valleys, or the little yellow spots on the map ; and here Jier 
agricuKure ahvays iviTl he, Unless by the expenditure of millions 
upon millions by future generations, the Columbia river is 
carried over and across mountains and plains, and used to 
irrigate her otherwise barren and desolate soils. 

We come now to California, the garden spot of creation, 
according to newspaper and other reports published by and 



99 

endorsed by the Agricultural Bureau of our nation. I hardly 
know how to treat this great subject. Buncombe, Munchau- 
sen, and all the dead writers of fiction are scarcely outdone 
by these statements, so endorsed by our national bureau of 
agriculture, on the subject of Calfornia agriculture. I will 
talk now to my own people of Alabama, as I know I will never 
be believed by the world of outsiders, who have been persist- 
ently stuffed with this theatrical nonsense under the sign man- 
ual of our government. California is a wonderful country — 
the most wonderful in the United States, or in the world. 
What nature has done for this country, she has done on a 
large scale, and is peculiar, well defined, and sharp. I lived 
once in this State, and voted for the free constitution of the 
State, and I know its principal features well. The gold 
formations were the richest in the world, and are peculiar to 
California. The agricultural features are also peculiar in cli- 
mate, productions, and soils. If the reader will place before 
him the map heretofore referred to, I will describe first, her 
soils, the ground work of her agriculture. In my forthcoming 
book, I have copied largely from the reports of Prof. Blake 
Prof. Newberry, and others detailed especially by our Gov- 
ernment, years ago, to examine and report upon this region. 
I will attempt, with the aid of the map, a description myself, 
and in as few words as possible. As I have traveled over, 
and seen the whole of it, I can perhaps exemplify, and better 
adapt it to the uses of this work. Only the deep and light 
colored yellow soils, representing the tertiary and alluvial, 
nnd the green color representing the cretaceous, have any 
agricultural value in California. The tertiary, the poorer 
soils of Alabama, and alluvial, represent really all of the agri- 
cultural soils of the State. The cretaceous, or rich soils of 
Alabama, represent mostly the Coast Range mountains. 
These little, long, narrow, deep, and light yellow strips and 
spots of the Coast Range, represent so many valleys or 
patches of soil, called rich, in this country, and cultivated by 
the Spaniards all over, for nearly two hundred years. These 
valleys and spots represent the Coast Range agriculture as it 
is called. The oblong area of deep and light yellow, on the 
map, represents what is called the Sacramento valley ; about 
fifty miles wide and three hundred and fifty long. It will be 



100 

seen, that the Sacramento river runs south, and the San 
Joaquin runs north, nearly through the middle of this valley, 
and unite, and run out to the sea, through the Bay of San 
Francisco. The Bay of San Francisco breaks boldly through 
the Coast JRange of mountains, and this break has a most 
important effect on the climate, and agriculture, immediately 
around the Bay of San Francisco. Along, and near the riv- 
ers, on either side, and notably in the Delta, where they enter 
the bay, appears a light yellow shade, representing the allu- 
vial, or soil washed here from all the rocks of California. 
This shade of light yellow extends southward, beyond the 
head of the San Joaquin river, and spreads out around the 
Tulare Lake, and is called Tulare Yalley; an isolated portion 
of the greftt Sacramento Valley, about fifty miles wide, and 
ninety miles long, having no outlet to the sea. The waters of 
the great rivers that run into Tulare Lake, are here evapo- 
rated and drunk up by the hot and dry winds that traverse 
this region. The alluvial is the richest soil of California, 
whether coming from the cretaceous of the Coast Range., or 
the tertiary of the plains in the valleys, or the granite of the 
Sierra Nevada. The alluvium from the Coast Range is of 
course richer than that from the Sacramento Yalley, or from 
the Sierra Nevada, and is found mainly in the Coast Range 
valleys, and renders them immensely rich, almost equal to 
the black lands of Alabama. It will be noticed, that there 
are no rivers, and but one or two small creeks, running from 
the cretaceous or richer formation on the west side of the 
Sacramento Yalley, into the Sacramento or San Joaquin riv- 
ers ; but they come every few miles, in torrents, in the win- 
ter, from the east or Sierra side. The greater part of the 
alluvium of this valley, is, consequently, much poorer than 
that of the little valleys of the Coast Range, coming alto- 
gether from the rich cretaceous rocks of California ; and they 
are, therefore, more productive than the alluvium coming 
from the Sierra Nevada, or the great tertiary plains that 
make up the Sacramento Yalley. In making the examina- 
tion, as heretofore stated, excited by the glowing crop reports 
of this great western region, I came across, among others, a 
statement of California agriculture, prepared by Mr. J. Ross 
Browne, and copied into, and pulished in the report of the 



101 

National Bureau of Agriculture, for 1873. The Commis- 
sioner says : 

"Mr. J. El. Browne GontYibntts, an exceedingly valuable jjaper 
on the subject of 'Reclamation and Irrigation.' As an illus- 
tration of the progress of agriculture in the State, he says 
that in 1849 the actual vield of gold in California was 
$10,000,000; in 1850, $35,000,000; m 1851, $16,000,000 ; in 
1852, $50,000,000 ; in 1853, .$'57,000,000 ; since that date it has 
gradually decreased to an annual average product of about 
$20,000,000. During the years named there was imported 
from the Atlantic States and South America, most of the sup- 
plies necessar}^ for the support of the population. Contrasting 
this state of affairs with the agricultural products of the past 
year, Mr. Browne says : 

" ' The total value of the wheat, oats, hay, wine, wool, fruit, 
butter, che.ese, and hides produced in California in 1872, is 
estimated at $75,000,000, of which our e.>:ports will probably 
exceed $50,000,000. The wheat crop alone reaches about 
$25,000,000, being an excess of $5,000,000 over our gold yield ; 
and the total of our agricultural products exceeds by about 
$10,000,000 the entire yield of the precious metals through- 
out the United States. These astounding results have been 
produced by the hard labor and individual energy of our 
farming population, numbering in the aggregate less than 
tiventy-four thousand souls. "When we consider that as late as 
1860 the total area of land in cultivation w^as only 937,133 
acres, and that in 1871-72 it reached 3,653,183 acres, our 
progress seems incredible.' And yet, how little has been 
done ! California contains an aggregate area of 120,947,840 
acres, of which not less than 89,000,000, including swamp and 
tule lands, capable of reclamation, are suitable to some kinds 
of profitable husbandry. Of these over 40,000,000 are fit for 
the plow, and the remainder present excellent facilities for 
stock raising, fruit growing, and other branches of agricul- 
ture. This agricultural area exceeds that of Great Britain 
and Ireland, or the entire peninsula of Italy. Yet, England 
contains three hundred and twenty-two inhabitants to the 
square mile ; Ireland two hundred and twenty-five, and Italy 
two hundred and fifty ; while California, estimating its popu- 
lation at six hundred thousand, contains only a fraction over 
three, and of this infinitesimal population five-sixths live in 
cities, towns, and villages." 

Mr. Browne is a gentleman of some prominence in the 
"West, and was employed by the Government, in 1867, to re- 
port upon the minerals west of the Rocky Mountains, and 
certainly did not expect this thin, gauzy a£fair, unexplained^ 



102 

to become a part of a State paper, and much less a State pa- 
per of our Nation, to be read all over the civilized world, 
vi'ith the Nation's seal of approval placed on it. I take no 
issue with the comments of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 
or with the statements of Mr. Browne, until he warms up 
with his subject and comes to the section as follows : 

" These astounding results have been produced by the hard 
labor and individual energy of our farming population, num- 
bering in the aggregate less than tioenty-four thousand souls," 
et sequitur. 

It will be seen that Mr. Browne states that a farm popula- 
tion of tiventy-f our thousand agricultural souls, without saying 
whether they were old or young, male or female, big or little 
souls, produced and cared for agricultural values to the amount 
of $75,000,000, or $3,125 to each living agricultural soul If 
they are big, male souls, it is ten times the amount produced 
in Alabama or Illinois at any time before the war. If they 
are mi^ed agricultural souls, it is a still greater wonder. In 
looking over the census reports for 1670, I found that 46,636 
persons were engaged in agriculture in California in 1870 be- 
tiveen the ages of 16 and 60; and of this number only 283 were 
females — cultivating then only 2,468,0b4 acres— and in 1872, 
the date he is referring to, 24,000 souls cultivated 3,683,183 
acres, or 151^ acres to each soul, or twice as many as were 
cultivated by 46,253 groivn men in 1870 ; and still the United 
States of America signs this statement and circulates it all 
over the civilized world as true. 

After getting through with the above wonderful statement, 
Mr, Browne says: 

'^ And yet hoio little has been done! California contains an 
aggregate of 120,947,840 acres, of which not less than 89,000,- 
000, including swamp and tule lands capable of reclamation, 
are suitable to some kind of profitable husbandry. Of these, 
40,000,000 are fit for the plow, and the remainder presents 
excellent facilities for stock raising, fruit growing, and all other 
branches of agriculture." 

We see here that three-fourths of the area of California 
is put down as adapted to some kind of profitable husbandry, 
and 40,000,000, or one-third of the whole, is noiv ready for 
the plow. I will discuss the last part of this proposition first, 
about the millions now ready for the plow. On page 381 of 



103 

the same report is copied another quotation from Mr. Browne. 
Speaking of the importance of reclaiming the swamp or over- 
flowed lauds, he says : 

" It would be of comparatively little use to reclaim from 
overflow the swamp lands of the Sacramento or San Joaquin 
vallej-s, without jjroviding at the same time an efjicient system of 
canals and ditches for irrigating them, during seasons of drought. 
The low lands have an advantage in retaining their moisture 
to a later period in the season than the uplands ; but experi- 
ence shows tliat their productiveness is materially efl'ected by 
drought, and that no reclamation is perfect which does not 
include the means of irrigation. The swamp lands in the 
Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin are very favorably 
located in this respect." 

Mr. Browne here fully answers his first and second propo- 
sitions. If it is of comparatively little use to reclaim lands 
daily overflowed (as much of these lands are by the tides) 
without providing for their being irrigated, of what value is 
this 40,000,(J00 acres of treeless arid, barren plains which con- 
stitute the larger portion of the Sacramento valley and of the 
Colorado desert, as it is called by all army officers. He must 
go into the desert to get his 40,000,000 acres flat enough to 
be ready for the plow. Where the hot winds and no rains 
fall, as can be seen from the table — as that of Fort Yuma of 
only 3.58 inches a year — dessicates and destroys not only any 
vegetation planted, but the very soil it is planted on. His 
89,000,000 proposition goes with the above. He winds up with 
the following : 

" This agricultural area exceeds that of Great Britain and 
Ireland, or the entire peninsular of Italy. Yet England con- 
tains three hundred and twenty-two inhabitants to the square 
mile, Ireland two hundred and twenty-five, and Italy two hun- 
dred and fifty ; while Cahfornia, estimating its population at 
six hundred thousand, contains only a fraction over three ; 
and of this infinitessimal population five-sixths live in cities, 
towns and villages." 

I can't see how any man could make this statement, with a 
full knowledge that it might reach the eye of Prof. Blake, 
Prof. Newberry, or some other distinguished man who knows 
it is only a play upon words. He argues here, and compares 
population, productions, and area, with Italy, England, and 
Ireland, as if the whole Territory of California was, by any 



104 

mearis, capable of bein^ cultivated ; when the fact is, as is 
well known, that by no system of possible or probable irriga- 
tion, within the next hundred years can, or will 10,000,000 
acres be reclaimed, irrigated, or cultivated in California. The 
very statement he afterwards makes, in regard to the sis or 
seven millions of acres of cultivatable lands being open to 
settlement in the Sacramento Yalley over twenty years, and 
occupied, on account of the want of irrigation, by only two 
or three thousand agricultural souls, tells the true conc^tion 
of nine-tenths of the possibly cultivatable area of California. 
This statement, and others like it, excited me for a while, but 
when I marched up to, and dug down into the subject, I found 
it nothing but sand. 

I have troubled the reader with the discussion of this sub- 
ject here, in order that he might see a sample of the thousand 
and one publications put forth and circulated all over the 
world as official, and otherwise, for the purpose as stated by 
Gen. Hazen, of influencing immigration and the sale of bonds. 
Such statements as these do no country any permanent good, 
except that the immigrant from abroad generally buys his 
ticket to his point of destination in the United States, and 
when he gets there, he is there. 

As was heretofore state.d, I was once a citizen of California, 
and examined it all over, and I found that the rivers Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin, in finding an outlet to the sea, had 
washed away the mountains of the Coast Range, and the rich, 
cretaceous, black soil of that broken mountain had settled in 
all the valleys and on all the plains around the Delta and the 
Bay of San Francisco ; and their influence is such, that in a 
crescent or half circle around the Bay of San Francisco, with 
the city of San Francisco as a centre, are found nine-tenths 
of the black or only rich soils in the State. All the eastern 
plain of the Sacramento Valley, except immediately along the 
streams and around Stockton for a few miles (where are found 
the black lands), are composed of a coarse, sandy, gravelly, 
thirsty, and poor soil, similar to that found in the pine bar- 
rens of Alabama. The black lands are rich beyond measure, 
equal to the richest slough lands in Alabama. But they cover 
a small area in the State. The wheat crop of California is 
enormous ; but if the reader will follow me patiently through 



105 

one or two pages, I will show him that it is produced, in any 
quantit}^, only in the. alluvial black lands above re/erred to; and 
any agriculture of any extraordinary value will always be 
carried on on these black lands. I was a farmer, or rather 
attempted to be a farmer once in California, on the bottom 
lands of the Merced river, near the middle of the San Joaquin 
Yalley. The soils — coarse, sandy, gravelly — were as rich here 
as any where else in the State outside of the black lauds re- 
ferred to above ; and had the advantage of a beautiful, clear, 
never-failing river running always over and through them ; 
but it was always a matter of doubt to me, whether agricul- 
ture would pay here, even with irrigation. Seeing the reports 
lately of agriculture here, I went to the figures of the census 
of 1870 for information, and looking along the agricultural 
columns for my county of Mariposa, I found she produced of 
wheat, in 1870, only 4,275 bushels ; of corn, 455 bushels ; of 
oats, 350; of barley, 8,153; and of potatoes, 1,812 bushels — ■ 
aboid the value of the crop of a small farmer in Montgomery 
county in 1860. 

This was all for a population of 4,872 white people, besides 
Chinamen and civilized Indians. I found also the following 
note : " Mariposa county — Township 1, also includes 372 
Chinese, and 7 Indians ; Township 2, 115 Chinese ; Town- 
ship 3, 383 Chinese, and 26 Indians ; Township 4, 214 Chi- 
nese and 1 Indian, or a total of 1,084 Chinese, and 34 In- 
dians;" or a sufficient number of Chinese voters, if natural- 
ized, to control the county. I concluded I would look a little 
farther, and see what had become of my neighbors, in Merced 
and Fresno counties, on the great San Joaquin river and val- 
ley. There was some land on the Merced, Mariposa, and 
other streams, near their entrance into the San Joaquin, or 
the San Joaquin itself, that I thought would produce well 
without irrigation. I again went to the records for informa- 
tion. Merced and Fresno counties cover this valley for 
nearly ninety miles, with a breadth in the valley of near- 
ly sixty miles. Yet, these two counties produced, in 
1870, only 237,927 bushels of wheat, 750 bushels of oats, 
161,311 of barley, 18,386 of corn, and 32,170 of potatoes. 
5,400 square miles, or more than one-half of this great desert 
looking, treeless, much talked of and written about valley, 



106 

produced in 1870 values to the amount of only $275,028, or 
about as much as was produced in 1860 within the sound of 
the clock, in the steeple of the capitol, in the city and county 
of Montgomery, Alabama. Here, again, my youthful genius 
was right, and so were the reports of our great army officers, 
sent Out to investigate this matter. Millions upon millions of 
bushels of wheat and other crops, are produced in California. 
Where does it come from ? I have not yet looked at the fig- 
ures ; but I know where it comes from, and any one else can 
know if he will only examine the splendid and accurate 'geo- 
logical maps, made over twenty years ago, by the officers of 
our Government. There is a little strip of rich land around 
Stockton, and between Stockton and Sacramento, on the east 
side of the Sacramento river, and up that river, in spots, 
above Sacramento, for miles. But the great bulk of the pro- 
ductions of California are now, where they were 200 years 
ago, and ever will be, around the delta of the rivers, and in 
the old Spanish settlements, and in the little valleys between 
the Coast Range and Pacific ocean. We will see by an exam- 
ination of the facts, whether I am right or not. In 1870, 
California produced 10,676,702 bushels of wheat, and 8,783,- 
490 bushels of barley. The two principal, in fact oulj^ agri- 
cultural staples, in the State. Of corn and oats, the two next, 
she raised respectively 1,221,222, and 1,757,507 bushels. Of 
this amount, four-fifths, or 13,180,094 bushels of wheat, 
5,986,209 of barley, and 1,473,638 of potatoes, were raised 
within a circle or half circle of 10L> miles around San Fran- 
cisco. This circuit takes in Sacramento, Stockton and Mon- 
terey ; and extends north to the southern line of Colusi and 
Butte counties in the Sacramento valley, and south to the 
southern boundary of San Joaquin county, in San Joaquin 
valley, embracing an area of 16,000 square miles, including 
the Bay of San Francisco, and the tules or marshes of the 
Delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento, or about ten or 
twelve thousand square miles of soil, including the mountains 
inclosing the valleys. The remainder of the Sacramento val- 
ley, about one hundred miles in length, including Butte, Ne- 
vada, Colusi, Tehamah, and Shasta counties, producing only 
1,182,910 bushels of wheat, 890,000 of barley, and 27,582 of 
potatoes. We have heietofore seen how insignificant are the 



107 

agricultural productions of Mariposa, Merced, and Fresno 
counties, lying south of San Joaquin county, and covering 
ninety miles of this valley. From the report of Prof. Blake, 
and from my knowledge of the Tulare and Kern Lake coun- 
ties, I thought that, perhaps, something might be produced 
here, without irrigation. But in this I was mistaken, as these 
two counties, covering over one hundred miles of the broad 
valley of California, produced in 1870, only 67,365 bushels of 
wheat, 111,386 of barley, and 17,255 of potatoes, or a crop 
value too small to find anything in Alabama, in 1860, to com- 
pare it with. Here we have one hundred and ninety miles of 
the southern end of this valley of California, or over 9,000 
square miles, that with a gold market in sight, produces now, 
actually less than any one of a dozen townships in our coun- 
ty of Montgomery, Ala., in ISCO. The one hundred miles in 
the northern end of the valley made a better showing ; but 
the whole 5,000 square miles, with the county of Coin si, in 
fact a part of the Delta and Coast Range country thrown in, 
produced agricultural values to an amount less than one-half 
that of our county of Montgomery, in 1860. You see, then, 
my friends in Alabama, that notwithstanding the current liter- 
ature of the day, all is not gold that glitters, in California. 
The question of actual agricultural productions in California, 
then, is reduced to a circuit around San Francisco, the Delta, 
and Coast Range counties, as above stated. 

We will now see how the crop productions in the richest 
part of the State compare, in money value, with those of our 
State, when her soil was properly cultivated and tilled, as the 
soil of California now is. Take two of the richest counties in 
the State — Allameda and Santa Clara. The farm valuation 
of the one being $16,747,770, and of the other $12,072,722, or 
a total of $28,770,492, or nearly three times that of our coun- 
ty of Montgomery. Calculate the value of thtjir farm pro- 
ductions, as found in the compendium of the United States 
census, in 1870, at the same prices as for the county of Mont- 
gomery, Ala. One dollar per bushel for wheat, their leading 
staple, and the rest in proportion, and we have an aggregate 
of money value, for the agricultural productions of these two 
counties, of $2,631,776, or only fout-Jifths of the value of the 
crop of the county of Montgomery, Ala., in 18G0. The Cali- 



108 

fornia counties have the advantage of ten years growth, in 
the comparison of the values of the soil products of these 
States, The Californian lost none of his property or labor, 
as the results of our war. His fences, his vineyards, his 
orchards, and his thousand and one little ornaments and 
comforts remained, and have continued to grow. While 
everything that was found on our soil, at the end of the war, 
property, labor, everything, was run over and destroyed ; and 
we have left now, only our souls and our soils. The one I am 
attempting to comfort, and the other I am attempting, in 
these pages, to defend. As stated in the beginning of this 
division of my subject, I am making an analysis of the agri- 
cultural actualities of the State of California, with no desire 
of undervaluing or underrating her worth. She is a great 
and rich State, and if the ideas and arguments I am now at- 
temfitiug to make, should prove fallacious and void iu their 
effects, and the people of Alabama can not be encouraged to 
stand longer in the breach, but give over to further ruin and 
decay, this, the richest in the natural elements of wealth, of 
all of the great States of this Uuion, wdth my household and 
my hopes, I will rejoin again my old friends in California. 

The agricultural actualities of California are small when 
compared with those of Alabama, in years gone by. But her 
possibilities through irrigation, are great. I see now, that 
her people, as I am now advising Alabamians to do, thor- 
oughly understand their situation, and have begun to move 
in the proper direction for relief. The great want of Cali- 
fornia agriculture, is the quickening element of water. The 
fifteen or twenty thousand square miles of treeless and desert 
plains, that make up on paper, now, the agricultural district 
of this State, must and will be irrigated. The water is there, 
notwithstanding the experiments of Pi'of. Blake show a des- 
sicating and eyaporating property in the wiuds^'that traverse 
this region, truly astounding. Every square mile of this vast 
iregion, covered with verdure, will quench so much of the 
thirst of these insatiable winds, until after awhile, and in the 
course of ages of time, as man, by his power over matter, pla- 
ces on these plains the tender vegetable mould, and waters 
and moistens their roots, by his hand, whilst they oppose 
their delicate heads to the withering, scorching heat of these 



109 

■winds, in their fierce attacks on the hitherto parched and in- 
capable soil, this section of California can, and will be made 
the happy home of agricultural man. But this will take 
time, money, and labor. Jjy turning the San Joaquin and 
Sacramento each to the foot of the Coast Kange, for the pur- 
pose of watering the western portions of the valley, and using 
the many beautiful and everflowing streams, from the Sierra 
Kevada, in watering the eastern side of these plains, this 
whole valle}^ can be brought under cultivation, and in no other 
way. 

I will insert here only short extracts from Prof. Blake, on 
southern, and Lieut. Abbott, on northern California. They 
are in substantiation of the above. 

Lieut. Abbott says of the Sacramento Valley proper : 

" General Topography. 

'' There is a great similarity in the general topographical 
features of the whole Pacific Slope. The Sierra Nevada in 
California, and the Cascade Eange in Oregon and Washing- 
ton Territories, form a continuous wall of mountains nearly 
parallel to the coast, and from one to two hundred miles dis- 
tant from it. Where examined by our party, the main crest 
of this range is rarely elevated less than 6,000 feet above the 
level of the sea ; and many of its peaks tower into the region 
of eternal snow, the lower limit of which is 8,000 feet above 
the same level. This long chain of mountains forms a great 
natural boundary. To the eastward lies a plateau, the aver- 
age altitude of which is about 4,500 feet above the sea. The 
winds from the sea deposit most of their moisture upon the 
western slope of the mountains, and reach the plateau dry. 
This, together with the volcanic character of the country, 
renders nearly the whole region an arid waste, unfit to sup- 
port a civilized population. 

"West of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, the char- 
acter of the country is widely different. The Coast Range, 
another and parallel chain of mountains, but of a lesser alti- 
tude and a more broken nature, borders the sea-shore. Be- 
tween the two lie several large fertile valleys, elevated but 
slightly above the sea, and containing nearly all of the arable 
land of the far ice-st ; of these valleys, the San Joaquin and 
the Tulare, the Sacramento, the Williamette, the Umpqua, the 
Kogue River, and the Cowlitz are the chief." 

"Sacramento Valley. 

" No complete description of this valley will be attempted, 



no 

as its general character is well known, and as Lieut. William- 
son, in his Eailroad Report, has fully discussed its topograph- 
ical features. A few remarks, however, relating to its climate 
and productions, may not be out of place. 

" Sheltered by the Coast Range of mountains from the moist 
and cool sea breezes, which renders the summer climate of 
the sea-shore of northern California so delightful, much of 
the Sacramento Valley is parched with excessive heat in the 
dry season. From the Army Meteorological Register, it ap- 
pears that, at Benicia, where the influence of the sea breeze 
IS felt, the mean summer temperature, for the years 1852-53 
-54, was 60.3 Fah., while at Fort Reading, which is about two 
degrees of latitude further north, it was 79.6'^ Fah., for the 
same years. Even at San Diego, situated seven degrees of 
latitude south of Fort Reading, the mean summer tempera- 
ture was only 70.9 Fah. for the above-mentioned years. 

" The effect of this excessively high summer temperature 
is greatly increased by the want of rain. Very little rain falls 
during the months of June, July, August, September and Oc- 
tober. The mean fall during these five mouths, for the years 
1852-53-54, was 1.1 inches at Benicia, and 1.4 at Fort Read- 
ing. This tends to show that less than three-tenths of an 
inch of rain per month, for the five consecutive hottest months 
of the year, is to be expected in this valley. The result can 
be easily anticipated. Vegetation, except on the banks of the 
streams, is in a great measure destroyed, and the foliage of 
the trees is almost the only green upon which the eye of the 
traveler can rest, when wearied with the glare of the sun re- 
flected from the whitened plains, 

" During the rainy months, which are December, January, 
February, March and April, the average fall is betAveen 3 and 
4 inches per month. The whole region is then clothed with 
luxuriant vegetation; but the excess of rain often causes the 
streams to overflow their banks, and spread far and wide over 
the low lands. Much of this water remains stagnant, until 
evaporated by the heat of the sun, which is undoubtedly one 
of the causes that renders intermittent fever so great a scourge 
to the valley.'' 

Prof. Blake says of the southern portion of Sacramento 
Valley : 

" The great valley or plain of California, lying between the 
Sierra Nevada and Coast mountains, is traversed in its lower 
portions by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, which, 
flowing from the north and south, unite in the latitude of San 
Francisco, and empty into the bay. It, however, extends far 
southward of the sources of the San Joaquin, and includes 
the broad valley of the Tulare Lakes, generally known as the 



Ill 

Tulare Valley, which, although at some seasons without draitr- 
age to the sea, is, topographically, a part of the extended 
plains under consideration. 

" This broad area is unbroken by hills or sudden swells of 
the surface, and thus, being nearly level, becomes a vast plain 
— the vision in the direction of its length being bounded by 
the distant horizon alone. The broad and level expanse is 
made more evident and striking to the observer by the gen- 
eral absence of trees, and the arid and gravelly surface dur- 
ing the dry season. 

" South of the San Joaquin there are several large streams 
flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the Tulare Lakes. The 
lakes are broad but shallow sheets of water, with shelving 
shores, so that a slight increase of the volume of the water 
during the rainy season covers a large area of the surface. 
When the water is very high, it is said to flow into the San 
Joaquin, thus connecting the two valleys by drainage. 

" The valley of the Colorado desert is, in many respects, 
similar to the Tulare plains, but is more heated, arid, and 
desert like." 

Speaking of the evaporating power of the sun and hot 
winds in the Tulare Valley, an extension, only, of the Sacra- 
mento Valley, he says : 

" Rapidity of evaporatioit from the surface of the lakes. — ■ 
Whatever cause may be assigned for the change in the con- 
dition of this valley, the rapidity of the evaporation from the 
surface of the water in that region should not be overlooked 
in the attempt to solve the problem. The amount of water 
that is taken up by the winds in that valley is astonishing. 
We have seen that during the dry season the lakes have no 
outlet, and that they are constantly receiving great quantities 
of water from the rivers ; the evaporation from their surface 
then must be equal to, if not greater than the supply. The 
conditions under which these lakes are situated could scarcely 
be more favorable for the result. The strong winds that rush 
in from the Pacific during the day pass over the broad, heated 
plains and the numerous ranges of the coast mountains be- 
fore they reach the valley. They thus part with the greater 
portion of their moisture before they pour in among the Tu- 
lares. The shores of the lakes being low and shelving, and 
without trees, no resistance is ofi"ered to these hot and dry 
winds ; they sweep over the surface and absorb the water with 
surprising rapidity. The rapidity of the evaporation is in- 
creased by the temperature of the water, which is fully ex- 
posed in shallow lakes to the rays of an unclouded sun, and 
becomes much heated. 

" The parching effect produced by these winds, and the evi- 



112 

dent r/ipidity of the evaporation of any ivater exposed to their 
action, induced me to make an experiment to determine, if 
possible, the amount of water taken up each day. 

"According to Dr. G. Buist, the amount of evaporation 
from the surface of water at Aden, on the Indian Ocean, ' is 
about eight feet for the year.' The basis of this statement is 
not given, but it is interesting to notice that the amount 
agrees with my experimental result." (Details of experiment 
omitted. — Author.) 

"If we regard the experimental result as a fair measure 
of the evaporation from the lakes, we may readily calculate 
the amount of water taken from them a month or year. We 
have 36 cubic inches of water for the daily evaporation from 
one square foot of surface, and consequently 522,929.5 cubic 
feet from every square mile. This equals 16,210.8 tons, or 
4,052,703 gallons — a quantity of which we can scarcely form 
an adequate conception, and yet it is far one day only. If we 
measure the amount of evaporation in depth, and assume that 
the quantity evaporated is equal each month in the year, Ave 
have, as before observed, seven feet seven inches avid one quain- 
ter for the yearly evaporation. The conditions Vv'hich I have 
detailed do not, however, exist throughout the year. In the 
rainy months the evaporation is much reduced, or perhaps it 
almost ceases. It is almost certain, however, that the experi- 
ment does not show the full amount of evaporation for the 
summer, it is undoubtedly much greater, and the results can 
only be regarded as approximate. They are, however, im- 
portant, and derive greater interest from the fact that few ex- 
periments of the kind have been made, and because the cli- 
matic conditions of that region are so peculiar." 

^'^Resemblance beMveen the Tulare Valley and the Colorado 
Desert. — It will be seen, by comparing this description of the 
Tulare Valley with the Colorado Desert, that the valleys re- 
semble each other in their important characteristics. It is 
probable that their geological history is similar ; but al- 
though of the same age geologically, the changes in the 
desert have been most rapid, and its complete dessication has 
been long since accomplished." 

I insert these extracts taken from the ver}^ excellent vol- 
ume written by Prof. Blake on this section of California, only 
with the view of showing the difficulties to be encountered, 
even in irrigating the Sacramento Valley. The same state of 
facts exists over the whole valley, and it will be seen that the 
difficulties are indeed formidable for agriculture here, even 
with the extremest efforts of man. 

He refers to the character of this plain, as being hot, arid. 



113 

and gravelly, except in the Delta and along the immediate 
valleys of the streams. He states the average heat in the 
summer, in the shade, at from 96 deg." to 115 deg. This de- 
scription is substantially that of Lieut. Abbott, of the north- 
ern part of the Sacramento Valley. He states distinctly, that 
the extreme fertility of spots in this valley, is due to the rich, 
alluvial washed soils, as much as to the presence of ever run- 
ning, irrigating streams, and, inferentially, that the great ma- 
jority of this valley, even if irrigated sufficiently, would pro- 
duce only ordinary agricultural crops. 

It will be seen here, that though agriculture has been here- 
tofore carried on profitably in California, the standard can 
not be kept up, on account of the expense of irrigation and 
the want of fertility in the remainder of her possibly cultiva- 
table soil. I regret the necessity of these long and extended 
remarks on the sterihty or barrenness of the region west of 
the 98th and 100th meridian, but the public mind is unpre- 
pared for the unwelcome news developed in these pages, and 
more than the mere assertion of one man will be, and is, neces- 
sary to awaken them from their dream of continual westward 
extension of our agricultural civilization. People of the Uni- 
ted States, you may as well look this question squarely in the 
face, for as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the 
west, you have covered over, now, all the agricultural area of 
the west, and of the whole country. Immigration will be 
compelled to go into British America, and around the great 
American Desert, included within, or extending even beyond, 
the northern limit of our country. 

A portion can and will go southward, and occupy and cul- 
tivate the soil left vacant here, by the worthlessness of the 
labor of the emancipated slaves. The rain areas begin again 
in Mexico, south of our boundary line, but I am unprepared 
to state, now, the value of the soils of our sister Republic, for 
the purposes of agriculture. I will insert, here, as a last 
reference to this subject, a letter published in the Pittsburg 
Iron Age, dated — 



114 

"Denver, Col., July 29tli, 1867. 

" Our farmers have a rich harvest — the first good one fof 
three years. For grazing purposes, the great plains east of 
here are almost perfectly adapted, but for agriculture of any 
form they are not fitted, and will not be, until a water supply 
is furnished them. In the valleys of the Arkansas and Platte 
water for irrigation can be procured, but only at great ex- 
pense — more than any farmer is able to incur. Rail road 
companies selling lands, and colonies, can build ditches that 
will give an ample water supply, but until this is done it 
would be folly for any man of small means to settle on any 
lands in western Kansas, or eastern Colorado." 

This man is a citizen of Colorado, and lives on the spot, 
and gives the very latest intelligence on this subject, and it 
will be seen, that neither the country or climate is changed. 

The agricultural capabilities of the United States, west of 
the meridian of 98 and 100, does not arise so much from the 
character of the rocks and consequent character of the soils, 
of this vast region, as from the want of moisture, any and 
everywhere, to cause vegetation to grow. The larger portion 
of the soils east of the Rocky Mountains are identical with 
the pine woods soils in the southern part of Escambia, Cov- 
ington and Baldwin counties, in this State, and could be cul- 
tivated, if there was only any rain fall, or water for irrigation. 
In Dakota, and notably in western Texas, and a small strip 
extending far out into the no rain region of Kansas, are found 
the cretaceous, the most fertile of the rich prairie soils of 
Alabama, and it is pitiful to see the tender vegetation, as it 
comes innocently into the world on these fertile soils in the 
Spring, and know that within the short space of six weeks it 
will be withered, and blown away by the hot dessicating 
winds that blow in summer on these plains. 

The Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains themselves, 
are but the upturned edges of the crater of a vast and once 
burning volcano, and the intervening spaces and the moun- 
tains themselves, in their rocks, in their soils, in climate and 
in the capacity for agricultural production are indeed a coun- 
terpart on this continent of the great desert of Sahara in Af- 
rica, There are peculiarities in the rain-fall preciiDitation on 
the narrow region along the Pacific coast, that render thi» 



115 

I'egion especially valuable for the production of wheat and 
other winter crops. The rain-fall here is only one-third that 
of Alabama, or as 21.73 is to 58.47 ; but it all comes from 
November to April — the exact time required for winter wheat 
and barley, and at the time of gathering and garnering, there 
is not a drop of water falling to rot or injure the gathered 
crops in the fields. The Sierra is simply a vast ledge of naked 
granite and volcanic rocks standing on their upturned edges, 
and no amount of rain here would cause vegetation to grow. 
The basin between the mountains, if watered from the heav- 
ens, might produce something. Then, perhaps, the winds 
would not be so withering, scorching and dessicating. But 
God, in his wisdom, has ordered otherwise ; and for compen- 
sation, perhaps, has filled this region with the richest of ores 
of our precious metals. The Kocky Mountain region is a 
region of wonders and curiosities of nature, but of little value 
to a bread hungry mortal. The vast region between the 
Kocky Mountains and Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas 
and eastern Texas — a region 750 miles wide and 1500 long, 
immediately west of the old States referred to above — is the 
only part of our country offering any inducements to an agri- 
cultural civilization. I would not, for the purpose of benefit- 
ing the soils of Alabama, say a single word in derogation of 
this vast region of our country, nor would I keep a single im- 
migrant from enjoying here a happy home ; but as I have 
attempted to write 'on, and profess to know something of, this 
country, I hope to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. 
Taking as true the authoritative utterings of the State of 
Kansas, through her legislature in 1874, we find that three 
divisions are made by themselves of the State, of a compara- 
tive agricultural value, measured only by the comparative 
rain-fall of each division. The first, extending from the Mis- 
souri State line to longitude 97 degrees, has an average rain- 
fall of 37.07 inches, or two-thirds of the rain-fall of Alabama, 
58.47 inches. From 97 to 99 degrees, the rain-fall is 23.61, 
or about two-fifths that of Alabama ; and fi'om 99 to 103 de- 
grees, the western limit of the State, it is only 13.34, or a lit- 
tle over one-fifth of the rain-fall of the State of Alabama ; and 
fi-om 103 to 105 degrees, or to Denver, is 12.94 inches, or 
about the same. Tlie above, in my opinion, measures the com- 



116 

parative rain-fall, and, consequently, the comparative agricultural 
value of this vast region from the Gulf of Mexico to British 
America. Up to 97 degrees, or the longitude of Austin, Fort 
Worth, Junction City, Yankton and the Red River of the 
North, you may go with confidence, and though even here 
the rain-fall is only two- thirds that of Alabama and the East- 
ern States, still, on rich soils, you can thrive by agriculture. 
From 97 to 99 degrees, the longitude of Fort Lincoln and 
Fort Belknap in Texas, Fort Larned in Kansas, old Fort 
Kearney in Nebraska and the Jacques Eiver in Dakotah, 
from the highest and most undeniable testimony, vou may 
expect to find only two-fifths of the rain-fall of the States east- 
ward, all through the year. If old farmers in the States think 
that their young scions can squeeze along on this amount of 
rain-fall, let their sons go there for agriculture. It is well 
attested and known, that the wild grasses never grow as lux- 
uriantly in this region as they once did in the old States 
How many of you would now turn out and attempt to raise 
stock for a living on the wild grass of Georgia, Ohio and New 
York ? West of the meridian of 99 degrees, the universal tes- 
timony is, that nothing can be raised without irrigation ; and 
the calculation is made by an ofiicer of the government, Lieut. 
Wheeler, recently examining, as he says, this question of irri- 
gation east of the Rocky Mountains, as a consequence of a 
presidential message to congress on the subject, that the en- 
tire volume of the water of all the rivers issuing from the 
mountains, if it was possible to save it all (which he says it is 
not), would not irrigate a sjyace of country thirty-five miles 
wide, and would leave the great rivers comparatively dry, on the 
plains beloiv. The above picture is appalling to the American 
mind, but it is true. I present this picture here, that the 
home hunting world may find the truth without searching for 
it in great volumes of bound books, inaccessible to the general 
reader. 

The question of fuel, referred to by Prof. Thomas in Hay- 
den's Geological Survey of the West, is also one of the seri- 
ous drawbacks to the region west of 97 degrees. By some 
fatuity or freak of nature, it will be seen by the reference to 
the geological map accompanying this paper, that the coal 
formations cease every tvhere along the lines of 97 degrees, except 



117 

a little s^jot around Fort Belknap in Texas. Think of it, you 
people who would propose to raise Indian corn for fuel, as 
suggested by Prof. Thomas, as the only resource now for fuel 
in all this vast region, with a rain-fall tioo-fifths that of Ala- 
bama and the Eastern States. The negro in Alabama, and all 
the other evils we suffer here, are as nothing as compared to 
the greater evils to be endured and found every where west 
of the meridian of 97 degrees. 

We have now reached the point in our argument where it 
is necessary that I should attack, and explain away, the er- 
rors and reasons that have hitherto kept people away from 
Alabama. The first and most potent is, the presence o^ the 
negro on our soil. 

The second, is the unfair manner in which the agricultural 
capabilities of our soil are treated and commented on in the 
state papers of our nation. 

We are wrongly treated in other publications as well, but I 
am a citizen of the United States and have the right, in a 
respectful manner, to petition and remonstrate with our gov- 
ernment or its agents in any matter affecting Alabama or my 
own interests. Besides, these national publications have a 
world-wide circulation, and endorsed as they are by our gov- 
ernment, they are taken as law not only at home but every- 
* where abroad. The census publications of 1860 and 1870, es- 
pecially that of 1860, compiled and made up during the pro- 
gress of our civil war, have treated us justly and fairly, and 
are a true mirror of the industries of our nation at the period 
represented. The facts so truthfully represented in the cen- 
sus of 1870, have been the foundation and souice from which 
the most damaging comparisons have been held up and insti- 
tuted as to the productiveness of our soils. Without explain- 
ing the condition and want of effectiveness of the labor culti- 
vating our soils at that time, great tables and maps of com- 
parison, founded only on the products of our soil at that time, 
are constructed and hung up, and commented on and circu- 
lated all over the civilized world, reducing the great crop pro- 
ducing empires of the South to a standard truly pitiable to 
contemplate. For instance, the crop producing value of the 
soil of Alabama, doubling in 1860 any of the States of the 



118 

West and North, except Illinois and California, is shown now 
in these national caricatures (as I respectfully call them) as 
scarcely one-half of that of the poorest of the barren New 
England States. These statements are not made with the 
intention of injuring the reputation of the soil of Alabama or 
the other Southern States for the production of crop values. 
But whether made so or not, it must be remembered that the 
generation of men on the stage of life now, know nothing of 
our splendid agriculture before the war, now nearly twenty 
years ago, and judge of our soils capacity to produce values 
by what they hear, read and see now of our agriculture ; and 
the meagre and counterfeit representation of our soil capacity 
as presented by the census of 1870 and other state papers, is 
taken as the true measure of the merits of our soil. 

I have gone back beyond the memory of the present gen- 
eration, outside of the South, and measured our soil capacity 
by the agricultural actualities of the period when they were 
properly cultivated and tilled before the war ; and with the 
view of dissipating these errors, I will hang the two pictures 
representing the productions of 1860 and 1870 side by side in 
this paper. In regard to our treatment by the census of 1860, 
I will say nothing. Nor can I say any thing of the census of 
1870, for it speaks the truth. But the truth sometimes hurts, 
and hurt it does here. The crop, and other maps published 
in the census report of 1870, showing at a glance, by the depth 
of colors, the comparative virtues and deformities of the 
States, founded on the then existing condition of things, most 
ruinously and truthfully represent every industry in the South. 
In the volume entitled " Industry and Wealth," we come, first, 
to the map showing the comparative wheat product of our 
territory in 1870. Alabama and the whole South, with the 
exception of Virginia, Tennessee, western North Carolina and 
northern Arkansas, and a small portion of Texas, is a blank. 
In corn product, there appears a thin milky shade of yellow, 
indicating that corn is raised here, but in amount insignifi' 
cant as compared to the North and West, excepting only a 
broad strip of new and fertile soil down through the middle 
of the State of Texas and around Columbia in Tennessee. In 
cotton product, it is seen that the sceptre has departed from 



119 

Alabama and gone northward and westward to Tennessee, 
Texas and North Carohna. With the exception of cotton 
only, the leading crop products of the North and West are 
mapped out and shown by colors in the census of 1870. The 
hay crop, of course, shows only a red spot here and there in 
the South ; and these, perhaps, only a square mile or two in 
a place ; while the depth of colors every where north of the 
Potomac and Ohio is intense. In tobacco Tennessee, Vir- 
ginia and North Carohna appear a httle dark ; while in dairy 
products, the Southern States are so blank that they are cut 
off from the bottom of the map altogether. There are two 
maps in the volume on population, which though silent, and 
simply sheets of paper, the one traced over in parts with pur- 
ple ink and the other with deep black, indicating severally 
the location of the foreign and negro population of the United 
States, that speak volumes upon volumes upon the subject of 
the movement of foreign peoples in our country. Except in 
spots in and around cities, the absolute absence of the deep 
purple colors in the region covered over with black, indicating 
a negro population, and its consistent and deep shadowed 
presence every where outside of the slave States, clearly indi- 
cate that where the negro was the foreign immigrant tvould not 
and did not go. The Potomac and Ohio represent the line of 
demarcation. Soil, climate and latitude appear to have noth- 
ing to do with the movement of our foreign population. Here 
I could write a volume, but I hope some other man will do it. 
There are two more tables, or maps, published in the census 
of 1870 ; in one of them, at least, we stand triple *** and 
number one, the table or map representing the comparative 
illiteracy of our people. On the opposite page is a map repre- 
senting the comparative ivealth of the diferent States. Here, 
side by side on these two maps, is an epitome of our poverty 
and disgrace, our illiteracy and wealth. In wealth Alabama, 
once the seventh in this Union of great States, is a blank, ex- 
cept immediately around and within the corporate limits of 
our cities, such as Montgomery and Mobile. In illiteracy, or 
the want of intelligence among the people, it seems that the 
colors were not deep enough alone, and an extra bottle of 
soot black ink was turned over and smeared upon the once 



120 

bright, intellectual face of Alabama. This system of maps, 
as printed by our government, is circulated all over the civil- 
ized world, and naked and unexplained, have ruined and will 
continue to ruin our hopes of an immigration of white people 
from any where. A person looking over a series of these maps 
in Germany, England, New York or Ohio even, and seeing at 
a glance the absolute paucity of production and want of wealth 
everywhere now, and the dark and deep shadows of illiteracy 
that shrouds and covers over the whole South, will dismiss 
without a word any idea of coming here. From these maps 
the only thing that seems prominent at the South now, is illit- 
eracy ; a product that no intelligent people wish to cultivate 
or enjoy. I have endeavored to avoid any reference to poli- 
tics in this paper, but I will say here that our people have 
been so much concerned since the war with their political sit- 
uation, that these errors, affecting their material interests, 
have been suffered to go on without any explanation or notice. 
Is there any wonder that the new millions of people seeking 
homes in our country every year, educated every where as 
they are from the above, should pass you stiffly and silently 
by ? Your very silence is as an admission that these bottom 
facts can not be explained away. You rant and you rave in 
your newspapers and periodicals on the greatness and gran- 
deur of our country, when every man that reads your news- 
papers and little pamphlets has in his pockets the damning evi- 
dence of your poverty and shame taken from the records of 
our nation. The census bureau of 1870, simply placed the 
naked facts before the world without explanation or comment. 
The agricultural bureau, however, has seen fit to refer to and 
comment on these facts in a manner unfavorable to the South, 
and as this work is published every year the evil is kept mov- 
ing. My space, as heretofore stated, is limited, and I have 
already far exceeded my Kmits, but I trust I will be pardoned 
for inserting, in defense of the soil of Alabama, the following 
tables, founded on the census of 1860, or before the war, when 
our soil was properly cultivated and tilled. The first table 
gives the value of the farm products in each State in 1860 ; 
the per capita value, taking the whole population, and also 
taking only the per centage actually and wholly engaged in 



121 

cultivating the soil. The second sets side by side the aggre- 
gate amount of the leading farm products in 1860 and 1870, 
and also of the value of live stock and of animals slaughtered 
or sold for slaughter, and the number of hogs in each of the 
States for the two periods : 



122 



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130 

It will be seeti that in the aggregate value of crop prodtiots- 
Alabama produced in i860, $60,970,243, and was exceeded 
only by New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Mississippi. 
In per capita production, by total population, Alabama was 
$63.22, and was exceeded only by Louisiana and Mississippi j 
and for the per centage actually engaged in the fields, she 
produced $l06.25, and was exceeded only by California, Lou- 
isiana, Mississippi and Maryland. This column shows truth- 
fully the actual returns for a year's labor on a farm, on each 
of the States, in 1860. 

A certain proportion of the population of every agricultural 
country on earth are, necessarily, non-producers — merchants, 
mechanics, la-^yers, common carriers, etc. etc.^and do not 
go into the fields. This class, in a healthy state of agricul- 
tural civilization, are in numbers sufficient only to carry on 
the business outside of the farms. When too many, they fall 
back into the fields ; and when one is wanted in this class, he 
goes from the fields. In Alabama, in 1860, 60 per cent, went 
into the fields, or were dependent exclusively on farming for 
a support. 33 1 per cent, belonged to the army of non-pro- 
ducers, engaged exclusively in carrying on the business of the 
farmers ;• and 6| belonged to professions not incident to or 
dependent directly on farming for a support. The non-pro- 
ducing class was found organized in 1865, in Alabama, on the 
basis of production here before the war. But as the produc- 
tions have diminisl ed to nearly one third of what they were 
before the war, there is great sufferings and poverty in this 
class, and they will necessarily be compelled to fall back into 
the fields or starve. This shrinkage in production has ruined 
all our great railroads in Alabama, and every other interest 
based on agriculture. California stood, in 1860, at the head 
of the farm labor paying list, and she is still ahead, Imsed on 
her production of wheat. Louisiana next, based mainly on 
her production of sugar. Mississippi next, based on her cot- 
ton production. It will be seen that Alabama was exceeded 
in her per capita meat product, by only Oregon and Tennes- 
see. 

In the second table, to which we now refer, under the head 
of animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter in 1860, it will be 
seen that Alabama raised meat in the aggregate amount of 



131 

$10,237,131, and was exceeded in aggregate amount by only 
New York with $15,841,404, Illinois $15,032,433, Ohio $14,- 
725,945, Pennsylvania $13,399,375, Tennessee $12,430,768, 
and North Carolina $10,414,546. In the total value of her 
live stock, including animals of all kinds, amounting in 1860 
to $43,471,711, she was exceeded only by New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Illinois and Ohio, of the States of the West. In the 
number of her hogs, by only Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. In 
potatoes, by New York, Ohio, Maine and Pennsylvania. In 
peas and beans, by New York alone. I publish this seconi 
table here, with the crop products and agricultural values, ex- 
actly as taken from the census of 1860 and 1870, side by side. 
We have no money now to print and publish great maps, such 
as those printed by our government, of the meagre produc- 
tion of 1870, and I can only ask the civilized world to look at 
and compare the products of our State at these two periods 
before making up their verdict on the capability of the soil of 
Alabama to produce agricultural values. Reader, look over 
these tables item by item and compare. If I only had the mo- 
ney to publish crop maps, showing the comparative soil pro- 
ducts of 1860 of the States of the Union, so that the world 
could see at one glance what we were before the war, I would 
write no more on this subject here. 

The report of the Agricultural Bureau, published as it is an- 
nually, has, perhaps unwittingly, done us great harm. In the 
volume for 1873, a table is prepared entitled, " A table show- 
ing the product of each of the principal crops of the several 
States named, the yield per acre, the total acreage, the aver- 
age price in each State and the value of each crop for 1873." 
I will give a sample of the construction and character of this 
table by taking Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, three States of the 
North, and their once great equals in agriculture — Georgia, 
Alabama and Mississippi— States of the South. I will also 
add Louisiana and Kansas : 



132 

TABLE, SHOWING THE PRODUCT OF EACH PRINCIPAL CROP, &Ki.- 



Products. 


Quantity 
produced 
in 1873. 


>• 0) 03 


Number of 

acres in 
each crop. 




Total valu' 
ation. 


OHIO. 

Indian com . . . bushels 

Wheat do. 

Rye do. 

Oats do. 


88,422,000 

18,567,000 

401,000 

23,090,000 

1,576,000 

191,000 

6,045,000 

32,500,000 

1,903,000 


35 
12 
11 

27 
21.8 
11 4 
85 

1,181 
1.05 


2,526,343 

1,. '347, 250 
36,454 
855,185 
72,293 
16,754 
71,117 
27,500 

1,812,381 


$ .42 

1 31 

75 

35 

98 

99 

88 

55 

14 61 


% 37,137,240 

24,322,770 

300,750 

8,081,-500 


Barley do. 

Buckwheat. ... do. 

Potatoes do. 

Tobacco ...... pounds 

Hay tons 


1,544,480 

189,090 

5,319,600 

1,787,500 

27,802,830 


Total 






6,965,277 

2,650,000 

1,860,000 

27,958 

570,000 

25.585 

11,487 

45,000 

19,500 

714,649 


$ 40 

1 22 

71 

32 

1 06 

88 

85 

06 

11 50 


$ 106,485,760 


INDIANA. 

Indian corn . . . bushels 

Wheat do. 

Rye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do; 

Buckwheat. . . . do. 

Potatoes do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


67,840,000 
20,832,000 

397,000 
11,400,000 

568,000 

139,000 

2,520,000 

15,600,000 

893,800 


25.6 

11.2 

14.2 

20 

22.2 

12.1 

56 

800 

1 25 


$ 27,136,000 

2.5,415,040 

281,870 

3,648,000 

602,080 

122,320 

2,142,000 

936.000 

10,272,950 


Total 






5,924,170 

6,839,714 

2,104,963 

134,064 

1,178,666 

99,130 

10,588 

137,750 

8,911 

1,880,000 


$ 32 

1 10 

58 

28 

95 

99 

1 12 

09 

8 75 


$ 70,556,260 

% 45.962,880 

31,258,700 

1,205,240 

9,900,800 

2,166,000 

89,100 

6,171,200 

681,750 

30,562,500 


ILLINOIS. 

Indian corn. . .bushels 

Wheat. do. 

Rye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat. ... do. 
Potatoes . .... do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


143,634,000 

28,417,000 

2,078,000 

35,360,000 

2,280,000 

90,000 

5,510,000 

7,575,000 

2,350,000 


21 
13.5 

15.5 

30 

23 

8. .5 
40 
850 
1.25 


Total 






12,393,786 

1,952,358 

310,857 

18,333 

358,209 

674 


$ 82 

1 75 

1 64 

75 

1 20 


% 117,998,170 


GEORGIA. 

Indian com . . . bu.shels 

Wheat do. 

Rye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat . . do. 


24,014,000 

2,176,000 

110,000 

4,800,000 

8,900 


12.3 

7 

6 
13.4 
13.2 


$ 19,691,480 

3,808,000 

180,400 

3,600,000 

10,680 


Potatoes do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


202,000 

343,000 

19,500 


78 

750 

1.05 


2,590 

457 

18,571 


1 15 

2 07 
20 50 


232,300 

71,001 

399,750 


Total 






2,662,049 




% 27,993,611 









133 



TABLE, SHOWING PEODUCT OF EACH PEINCIPAL CEOP, &c.— Cont'd. 



Products. 


Quantity 
produced 
in 1873. 


>• ® «3 


Number of 

acres in 
each crop. 


3> - 


Total valu- 
ation. 


ALABAMA. 

Indian corn .... bushel 

Wheat do. 

Eye do. 

Oats da 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat . . . do. 


21,751,000 

884,000 

20,000 

813,000 


14.5 
7.3 
9.4 

15.5 


1,500,069 

121,096 

2,127 

52,451 


$ .84 

1 70 

1 56 

78 


$ 18,270,840 

1,502,800 

31,200 

634,140 












Potatoes do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


170,000 

200,000 

17,000 


80 

727 

1.20 


2,125 

275 

14,167 


1 20 

15 

18 50 


204,000 

30,000 

314,500 


Total 






1,692,310 

1,196,322 

19,687 

1,500 

34,166 


$ 85 

1 75 

1 60 

86 


$ 20,987,480 


MISSISSIPPI. 

Indian corn . . . bushels 

Wheat do. 

Eye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat . do. 


18,543,000 

189,000 

15,000 

492,000 


15.5 
9.6 
10 
14.4 


$ 15,761,550 

330,750 

24,000 

423,120 












Pot^xtoes do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


206,000 
85,000 
13,000 


87 

739 

1.27 


2,368 

115 

10,236 


1 20 

17 

20 25 


247,200 

14,450 

263,250 


Total 




1,264,394 
552,142 


$ 90 


$ 17,064,320 


LOUISIANA. 

Indian corn . . . bushels 
Wheat do. 


9,112,000 


16.5 


$ 8,200,800 


Eye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat. . . do. 












35,000 


16.3 


2,147 


84 


29,400 












Potatoes do. 

Tobacco pounds 

Hay tons 


60,000 
35,000 
13,100 


60 

777 

1.20 


1,000 

45 

10,917 


1 05 

18 

17 50 


63,000 

6,300 

229,250 


Total 






566,351 

1,202,046 

309,286 

28,181 

283,636 

18,727 

7,20C 

. 30,00L 

36C 

) 651,333 


$ 31 
1 00 
56 
23 
70 
80 
94 
10 
3 90 


1 8,528,750 

$ 14,570,000 

4,330,000 

173,600 

2,152,800 

360,500 

72,000 

2,880,000 

22,000 

3,810,300 


KANSAS. 

Indian corn. . .bushels 

Wheat do. 

Eye do. 

Oats do. 

Barley do. 

Buckwheat. . . do. 

Potatoes do. 

Tobacco poundh 

Hay toufc 


47,000,000 

4,333,000 

310,000 

9,360,00C 

515,00(j 

90,00C 

3,000,001 

2-20,001 

977, OOC 


39.1 
14 
11 
33 

27.5 
12. S 
l.Ot 
611 
1.5C 


Total 






2,530,76^ 





$ 28,311.200 



134 

Look at this table. It will be seen that Kansas exceeds, 
as appears here, any of the Southern States named in the 
production of crop values, notwithstanding the fact that the 
prices given in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi are double 
what they were before the war, and those of Kansas only 
about the same as they were in the West before the war. 
Whilst the aggregate values of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 
which were less in 1 860, as will appear from the table No. 12, 
than those of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, have left us 
far behind. 

By reference to the table above referred to, it will be seen 
that the aggregate crop values of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois 
was, in 1860, $181,797,656, and that of Georgia, Alabama and 
Mississippi $187,188,766, or more than the great Western 
States. By reference to the table of principal ci'ops, etc., pre- 
pared by the Agricultural Bureau, it will be seen that the value 
in 1873 was $5.95,040,190 for Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and 
only $66,045,454 for Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, the 
one rated at a little above anti-war prices and the other at 
double anti-war prices. But if the reader will examine closely 
the above tables, he will see that cotton, sugar and rice, the 
principal crop products of the South, are left out, and only the 
principal agricnltiircd articles produced in the West are enumer- 
ated, and still it purports to he a table of the principal crop pro- 
ducts of the States named. The skeleton tables, founded on 
the census of 1870, of the miserable crop productions at that 
time, are kept before the public, and continually referred to 
and commented on in language like the following : 

"The census record of production in these States is but 
$558,000,000; the record should be made to read $1,500,000,000. 
W^ith three-fourths of the people of ten States employed in 
agriculture, the value of agricultural products exceeds but 
little that of the States of New York and Pennsylvania, where 
only one-fovirth are so employed. The average for each per- 
son employed in agriculture in those States are respectively, 
as deduced from the census, $677 and $707, while those of 
Georgia and Mississippi are $239 and $282. For the ten 
States the average is $267 ; for the four populous middle 
States $686. Even the States producing cheap corn show a 
larger return, the average for one man's labor in the five States 
between the Ohio river and the Lakes being $498, while the 
six sterile eastern States produce $490 for each farmer. It 



135 

may be the census is less complete in the cotton States, but 
it is undeniable that agricultural industry makes a smaller 
aggregate return there than in any other section. Nor is the 
reason wanting — it is due to the prominence of cotton, the 
return for which is substantially a fixed quantity and the neg- 
lect of all other resources." 

'* There is no sufficient cause why twenty-five per cent, of the 
people of Pennsylvania should produce in agriculture a value 
of $52 annually for each inhabitant in the State, while 59 per 
cent, of the people of Virginia should only divide $48 per 
head of total population. 

" The path of progress has been open to all ; laws supposed 
to favor a diversified industry have been applicable to all 
States alike; the best water power and cheapest coal are in 
States that make no extensive use of either ; milder clim^es 
and superior facilities for cheap transportation, have furnished 
advantages that have not been transmuted into net profits ; 
and yet such communities are daily inflicting irreparable inju- 
ries upon themselves by neglecting the gifts of God, and 
spurning the M>or of man, and are wout to deem_ themselves 
injured by the prosperity flowing from superior industry and 
a practical political economy." 

It is strange that the Agricultural Bureau of the nation, 
organized and paid for the purpose of finding out the difficul- 
ties, and promoting the interests of farming, should fail to 
find out what is the matter with the agriculture of the cotton 
States ; and should attribute it to the selfishness of producers, 
in raising all cotton ; the want of economy, and the prevalence 
of the same wasteful, thriftless habits of ante-war times; 
when the true cause —the inefficiency and 2va7it of labor — is 
seen and felt on every farm and in every field in the South. 
One other comparison, and I am done with this part of my 
subject. In the evidence given in before the Windom Trans- 
portation Committee of the United States Senate, raised to 
promote cheap transportation for the grain and other products 
of the West to the sea, and with the view of getting southern 
votes, it was necessary to make it appear that the soil of the 
cotton States could never produce meat and bread, and that 
cheap transportation to the grain fields of the West was the 
panacea for all our ills. In doing this, the tables of the cen- 
sus of 1870 were referred to by Mr. Frobell of Atlanta, Presi- 
dent, or General Agent, of the Tennessee Great Western Ca- 
nal improvement. In my forthcoming work X comment on 



136 

this testimony, and give it as another sample of the manner 
in which our agriculture is injured, as follows : 

" I will advert to and comment on the testimony of a Mr. 
Bushrod W. Frobell, from Atlanta, Ga., before the Senate 
Committee. From the length of his testimony— forty-one 
pages — he seems to have been a man of some prominence. 
He was given more space than was given the city of Mo- 
bile, and one-third as much as was given to the city 
of New Orleans. He represented the Atlantic and Great 
Western Canal, and had the endorsement of the Governor of 
Georgia. He represented Alabama, or rather his was the 
only testimony on Alabama that I saw in the book, in rela- 
tion to this matter. As soon as I opened the book, I saw he 
was lost, and on the wrong side of the branch, as far as the 
initerests of the South, and especially Alabama, were con- 
cerned. Passing over his general testimony, I came first to 
an elaborate and carefully compiled table of statistics, in 
which appears as table No. 2, the population and productions 
of counties on the Coosa river, and its tributaries in Alabama, 
etc., etc. Old Autauga stood at the head of the list, just as 
she always has done, in the alphabetical list of counties in 
Alabama. Looking along the column, I found under the 
head of corn production, the county of Autauga, 191,158 
bushels, instead of 559,521, her product in 1860. The county 
of Montgomery, just across the river, 602,549 bushels, instead 
of 1,586,480 bushels, iu 1860. The county of Lowndes, still 
lower down, 453,187, instead of 1,288,722 bushels. Dallas 
437,701, instead of 1,352,961. Glorious old Macon 168,661, 
instead of 972,731. Animals slaughtered for food : The ca- 
pacity of old Autauga was put down at $32,531, instead 
of $190,636. Montgomery $90,153, instead of $336,915. 
Lowndes $53,433, instead of $319,844. Dallas $60,343, in- 
stead of $369,255 ; and everything else in the same miserable 
proportion, all over the State. I saw he had been reading 
from that miserable fraud upon the soils of the South, the 
census of 1870. I do not intend to accuse Mr. Frobell of 
fraud, or intentional fraud, in presenting Alabama before this 
committee, and the world, in the pitiable attitude and plight 
that he did. Like others, he may not have known Alabama 
in the days of her glory ; and like others, the world over, he 
took it for granted that these printed maps and reports of 
Government, represented truly, the capacity of our soil for 
production. But I do claim the right, as far as Alabama is 
concerned, as one of her citizens, to paint over these slurs on 
her virtue, and set her right before the world." 

But we will see furthpr, on page 738 of the Eeport, Mr, 
Frobell says: 



137' 

"Four of the Cotton States plant six million acres in food 
crops, and employ half their labor and capital in cultivating 
corn and wheat. This deprives the West of a market for fifty 
millions of bushels of grain, which is left worthless upon the 
hands of the producer. 

"At the same time it enhances the price of cotton, impos- 
ing additional hardships upon the agricultural laborer whose 
scanty earnings will scarcely permit him to indulge in the 
luxury of a shirt ; and all this is due from the fact that we 
have no means for the interchange of our respective products 
cheaply." 

The above is the testimony of Mr. Frobell, the only repre- 
sentative of Alabama before this important Congressional 
Committee, on this subject. It will be seen that our friend, 
having read the wrong sign -board at first, and got lost, never 
touches the true reason of the condition of the South, and 
the remedy therefor. His first argument is, that the planting 
of six millions of acres in food crops by four of the cotton 
States deprives the West of a market for fifty millions of 
bushels of grain ; and while this cause enhances the price of cot- 
ton, it has made our friends in the West so poor that they 
have to go naked. He next says: "Why do we import iron? 
Why does the South plant millions of acres ot corn, and raise 
that product at an average cost of ninety-four cents per 
bushel, while cotton was worth twenty cents per pound, and 
corn in Missouri and Iowa some ten cents per bushel?" I 
do not deny that this statement of facts may be true, nor do 
I deny any of his statements of fact. They are but too true. 
But I do protest, in the name of my State, to hanging this 
skeleton on the wall, and calling it Alabama. Say she is sick, 
say she is not well, tell ivhat is the matter ivith her ; or at least 
hang around her the old pictures of her former self and her 
daughters, the counties of Autauga, Montgomery, Lowndes, 
Macon, Dallas, of Madison, of Marengo, aye, and the little 
county of Jefferson, with her 559,521 bushels of corn, and 
her 4,940 cotton bales— little bags of gold, comely, handsome, 
and full fed as they then were. Like any once beautiful ma- 
tron would be, she is ashamed of this counterfeit of herself — 
herself, it is true, but all the essential elements of herself are 
left out. 
We will now follow Mr. Windom and his committee to 



138 

"Washington, and hear his report to the Congress of the Uni- 
ted States, We will enter. Hanging around the walls of 
the Senate Chamber are the pictures drawn by the people of 
the various parts of our country, by themselves. 

First is the great picture, as drawn by Mr. Flagg, President 
of the Northwestern Farmers' Association, of the farmers of 
the West in mighty array, on their march to the sea, to feed 
a people a thousand miles away, with the gates of hell break- 
ing down to let them go through. Of Mr. Powell and Mr. 
Van Horn, delegates from the Kansas City (Mo.) 13oard of 
Trade, detailing to the committee the fact — "As to corn, it 
is quoted the day on which this is written, in New York, at 
58^ to 60 cents per bushel, leaving to the farmer, the shipper, 
and for all expenses in getting it on the car in Kansas City, a 
margin of six to eight cents. Is it strange that it is burned 
for fuel, to save the destruction of timber, and cheaper than 
coal at the price of mining and delivery !" Of Mr. John New- 
ell, President of the Illinois Central Kailroad, telling the fun- 
damental causes of the complaints of the farmers of the West, 
in these words : " The Liverpool price controls the price here, 
and the cost of getting grain to the sea-board, difficulty of 
freight crossing the ocean, which were large and have been 
increasing since, left a margin here of eighteen to twenty 
cents per bushel, at the stations around Illinois last fall, which 
was an exceedingly low price." Mr. Flagg again stating — 
"That agricultural products have been abundant and cheap 
in the West, and under the existing state of transportation, 
the farmers have had to lose." Of Samuel P. Tufts, repre- 
senting the Northwestern Farmers' Convention, answering 
the questions of Senator Sherman of Ohio, (p. 645,) advising 
the wiping out of the present Supreme Court of the United 
States, if it decides against the power of Congress to build 
these canals. 

Then the picture of Mr. Frobell of Atlanta, of Minnesota, 
Kansas, Iowa, and the Emigrants' Great West, shivering 
around piles of burning corn, with no under garment to keep 
themselves warm ; and last, but not least in interest, and by 
the same hand, the gaunt, spectral figure of Georgia, Ala- 
bama, South Carolina, and Florida, kneeling in one frame, 
debtors, bankrupt, and with no hope for the future, begging 



139 

in shame and in sorrow for the husks that the swine of the 
West will not eat. Mr. Windom rises and makes his report, 
as follows : 

" The cheaper mode of handling grain by elevators has not 
yet been adopted in Russia, but doubtless will be soon. When 
this shall be done, and her wise system of internal improve- 
ments, which have already turned the wavering balances in 
her favor, shall be completed, she shall be able to drive us 
from the markets of the world, unless wiser counsels govern 
our statesmanship than have hitherto prevailed. In fact, as 
the increased size of ocean vessels is constantly decreasing 
the cost of ocean transport, and our wheat fields are yearly 
receding further westward from the lakes, it is not impossible 
that when she shall have driven us from the markets of Europe, 
she will become our active competitor in Boston and Port- 
land, if cheaper means of internal transport be not provided. 

" The cry of despair which comes from the over-burdened 
West, the demand for cheaper food that comes from the labor- 
ing classes of the East and from the plantations of the South, 
and the rapid falling off of our principal articles of export, all 
indicate the imperative necessity for cheaper means of inter- 
nal communication. If we would assure our imperiled posi- 
tions in the markets of the world, reinstate our credit abroad, 
restore confidence and prosperity at home, and provide for a 
return to specie payment, let us develop our unequaled re- 
sources, and stimulate our industries by a judicious system of 
internal improvements." 

These extracts speak for themselves, and show the attitude 
in which we stand before the nations of the world. Do you 
recognize in thef^e pictures, citizens of Alabama, your State at 
any time before the war ? 

The South can never prosper on bought corn and meat, and 
the figures in this paper clearly show there is no need of cheap 
transportation to the grain fields of the West, for the benefit 
of agriculture here. The cotton produced in the South, as 
heretofore stated, only stands in the attitude of a gold-paying 
purchaser for the other products of the farm ; and is produced 
cheaply only in conjunction with other crops, and can never 
pay the price of bought corn and meat. I introduce here a 
short extract from the Report of the Mobile <fe Girard Rail 
Road for 1876, giving their loss in business, and the reason for 
it. The table measures exactly the movement of business in 
Alabama since 1871. It fell gradually to 1874, and is gradu- 



140 

ally rising now ; and so it is over the ivhole State. Head, and 
reflect on this instructive and sensible little table and accom- 
panying remarks, and see Alabama as it is : 

" Freight Earnings. 

" 1871 $1S2,918 71 

1872 112, 16 68 

1873 114,723 34 

1874 97.241 34 

1875 103,171 69 

1876 106,156 62 

" The question then arises, where are the causes of this 
loss? One reason has been, a reduction of rates, on account 
of competitive roads ; but the main cause has been in reduc- 
tion of the 'producing capacity of the section tJirough luhich our 
Road rims, and in the quality of the articles transporied, ivhick 
were largely corn and bacon." * * * * * 

/M^heap transportation to the South is a myth. It is singu- 
Mar, however, that men we elect and send to Congress, Avho 
live in our midst, and are in daily contact when at home with 
- the ruin, and the causes of the ruin of our country, should 
follow this straw, as it floats on the great sea of our troubles, 
and imagine for a moment that by plucking it awa}- the angry 
waters would subside. Give us labor as effective as we had 
before the war, and Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi could 
turn the Mississippi river into the Atlantic at Brunswick, by 
digging a canal around the southern end of the Alleghanies, 
along the low valley of the cotton belt, and pay for it ivitli the 
lost products of only one year, as can be seen by reference to 
the table below. They could also build the Pacific Railroad, 
and pay for it with one year's lost products alone. Away with 
this nonsense about Great Western Canals! Away with this 
struggle to build Pacific Railroads across an inhospitable 
desert, to take people away from here, when an empire of 
rich, uncultivated, agricultural country lies in ruins at our 
feet ; and let us devote our energies to the real diseases that 
"■^'s^-^^^e destroying us at home. I insert here a table of the pro- 
^^ts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, in 1860 and 1870, 
that those Congressmen may see what is the matter with these 
States and the South : 



141 




142 

Look along these tables, and then look at the end, and yon 
will see that in bushels and pounds, and at the final adding 
Up, in dollars and cents, the figures are scarcely one-half of 
what they were before the war. The principal crops, corn, 
and cotton, are made, now, almost in the same ratio and pro- 
portion, that they were made before the war. Cotton 2,894,- 
302 bales, in 1860, and 1,468,354, in 1870; and corn 93,260,- 
257 bushels in 1860, and 50,261,723 in 1870, or a few bales of 
cotton, and a few bushels of corn, more than half what they 
were before the war. This shows that these crops have been 
planted and cultivated in the same ratio, and upon the most 
economical principle, for the raising of both staples, and the 
loss in one staple is precisely the loss in the other. The plan- 
ters in the South, now, are cultivating crops to the very utmost 
extent that the labor will bear. Experience has shown, that 
before the war, the most profitable and economical crop was 
fifty bushels of corn to one bale of cotton, and the planters 
have adopted this plan. But fifty bushels of corn to the 
fewer bales of cotton, raised in the old Cotton States, since 
the war, does not give meat and breadstuffs enough to sup- 
port their population. Nor has the higher price received for 
the fewer bales of cotton bought corn enough to feed the 
people of these States. Nor will the labor that is here 
now, if they produce nothing but corn, feed the people 
of these States. The crop products of Georgia, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi, in 1860, were valued at $187,188,766. 
Those of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, at $181,797,656. In 
1870, those of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were only 
$91,482,656. Those of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, at $290,- 
000,000. Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi beat the three 
Northern States in 1860, in the aggregate ; but in 18V 0, these 
States produced three times as much as the States of the 
South. We see here at one glance what we have lost by the 
war. It is not the loss in slaves, or in the destruction of our 
other values, Imf the absolute loss of our labor that makes us so 
poor at this time. The lost products of these three States 
alone, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, amounted, at anti- 
war prices, the prices in the above table, annually to $95,706,- 
111, or allowing for no increase in production, which our his- 
tory proves was never less than fifty per cent, anywhere in 



143 

onr conntry, for each succeeding decade, to $957,061,010, foi' 
ten years. The lost products of the other Cotton States 
were the same in proportion to the amount of slave labor' 
used. 

The civilized world is filled with wonder by the payment 
by France of the indemnity of $1,000,000,000 to Germany in 
less tliun three years, after her war ended. ' France had a pop- 
ulation of 1)8,000,000, with her labor, her capital in money^ 
in ships, and machines unimpaired, when her war ended. 
Less than 3,000,000 of people cultivated the soil of Georgia^ 
Alabama and Mississippi before the war between the States. 
Had we been left with our labor unimpaired, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi, could have paid a penal debt, propor- 
tionally as large in one year alone, and could have paid the 
whole debt in ten years, and not felt it. 

Health. 

The whole State of Alabama is as healthy as Illinois, Indi- 
ana, or Ohio. 

Fevers are the most common diseases here^ and I find that 
they are as fatal in Illinois and Indiana^ as in Alabama. 13.1 
of the deaths in Alabama are from fevers; 13.1 and 12.9 of 
the deaths of Illinois and Indiana respectively, are from the 
same causes ; Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Arkansas- 
show, 25.7, 21.7, 20.7 and 19.5 from the same causes. Only 
6.6 died in Ohio from fevers. Pneumonia killed 12.3 in Ala- 
bama, 5.3 in Ohio, 8.2 in Indiana, and 19.6 in Arkansas. 
Consumption 5.3 in Alabama, 6.2 in Florida, 14.1 in Ohio, 
12.8 in Indiana, and 10.9 in Illinois. This dreaded disease 
makes bu't little headway in this State. Diseases of the di- 
gestive organs seem to be severe in Alabama ; 17.2 of the 
deaths occurring therefrom, 16 per cent, in Illinois, 12.8 in 
Indiana, and 8.9 per cent, in Ohio. The above are the prin- 
cipal diseases affected by the climate or place. I find that 
fever was more fatal to the negroes than to the whites ; 808 
negroes in 10,000 dying from fevers, and only 697 whites. 
Pneumonia killed more negroes than whites, in the propor- 
tion of 389 whites to 697 negroes. Diseases of the digestive 
organs, the most fatal of all diseases in Alabama, killed 855 
blacks to 481 whites. These three diseases caused 42 per 



144 

cent, of all the deaths in Alabama, and were more fatal to ne-* 
groeS than to whites. These statistics, and others like them, 
though they give the comparative mortality in the whole 
State, do not reach the question of deciding the health of any 
given locality. 

The Black Belt of Alabama is like any rich productive 
country in the world, and is not as healthy as the poorer 
counties here and elsewhere. But it is as healthy for the 
white man as for negroes ; only the negroes have been accus- 
tomed to the sun and hard labor from their youth, and for 
this reason, seem to stand the sun and same labor much bet- 
ter than the whites. 

The health of the Black Belt is a matter, however, easily 
assured. Artesian well water can be had, any and every^ 
where now ; and there is not a single creek, or malaria pro- 
ducing swamp, away from the Alabama, Tombigbee and War- 
rior rivers, that cannot be easily drained and cultivated, and 
made as healthy as any rich part of the South. The small creeks 
fall from five to ten feet per mile everywhere, and can be easily 
drained. Along the great rivers it will always be unhealthy 
in the fall season ; but away from them it will not be. This 
is the case everywhere in the United States, where the riv- 
ers run sluggishly, and overflow. Purchase ten thousand 
acres of land, anywhere in the rich prairie soil, away from the 
rivel^s, and dig artesian wells all over it, which can be done 
with the recently invented machinery for a song, and place 
upon it two hundred German immigrants, such as now live at 
Cullman, in this State, as a start, and in less than ten years, 
this region of Alabama would again vie with Illinois. It is 
the best country in the world for a laboring, farm producing 
people, and lue loill see it. I would not speak so confidently, 
if I had not seen, and lived on, and labored on this, as well 
as others of the rich, and prosperous regions of our country. 
These rich and fertile regions all have some difficulties in the 
way easily overcome by labor. If the negro was not here, 
there would be an immigration of white people to this rich 
region of Alabama, equalling that going to Texas ; and why 
not? Dallas, Texas, and Montgomery, Ala., are in the same 
latitude, and the soils, and the water, are identically the same, 
and white people cultivate, comfortably, and profitably, the 



145 

rich soils of Dallas, and adjoining counties in Texas. I am 
not informed that artesian water can be had as easily in Tex- 
as as it can here in Alabama, Alabama is an elevated pla- 
teau, having a system of short rivers of its own, and so of 
Texas, and is easily drained by the great fall of this plain, of 
all malaria producing causes. Will the agricultural white 
man of the South, and the world, continue to pass around 
this richest, and most fertile of the soils of the United States, 
as has been shown in this paper, and for no other known rea- 
son, than that the negro is here, and won't cultivate the soil? 
Our Government is engaged in a great war now, with the sav- 
ages of the Northwest, inaugurated from no other cause than 
that white people may occupy and cultivate, in peace, the few 
spots of agricultural soil found here and there, only, over this 
vast, rainless, treeless Sahara of the West. Emigrants going 
West, organize themselves into colonies for the purpose of 
digging great irrigating ditches, to water their dry, and other- 
wise incapable soils. Is it not easier to dig a ditch, which, 
whilst it reclaims thousands of acres of the best cultivatable 
soils in the world, will, at the same time, carry away every 
atom of disease producing substance that may exist, any- 
where, in this rich region of Alabama? I do not say that 
even drainage is necessary here. But I do say, that away 
from the large rivers, there is not a swamp, or stagnant pool 
9f water, anywhere over this prairie region of ten thousand 
square miles, that can not be easily and profitably drained, 
and rendered as healthy as Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio, as far 
as miasma is concerned. The country looks now, as if it had 
just passed through the shackles of * * * * *. No fences, no 
hogs, no cattle, no agriculture, no nothing. Bald, barren, un- 
cultivated, and washed spots, are seen everywhere ; and I will 
admit, that with the record of 1870 in his pocket, an immi- 
grant will stand on the edge of this once beautiful, but now 
dreary, uninviting region, and hesitate to cast his hopes, and 
his fortunes here. But once in, his labor can make it what it 
once was, or his idleness, unthrift, and the fast growing 
weeds, will drive him away. The white people here, now, all 
belong to the now superabundant non-producing class, and 
they will work nowhere in the fields. The white people else- 
10 



146 

where in Alabama and the South, have rich, inviting, and 
now uncultivated fields, immediately around their old homes, 
where there are fewer negroes. The only hope for the future 
prospects of this section, is an immigration of laboring white 
people from abroad. The white people here, now, are edu- 
cated and born non-produeers, and cannot, and will not, labor 
in the fields. I have the assurance of every intelligent Ger- 
man, now living in this region, that the laboring white people 
from the old country, would ask no greater boon than a home 
in this section of Alabama. But these are all matters of de- 
tail, and can be best promoted when this subject of immigra- 
tion is taken hold of in earnest, and in the right way. The 
only difficulty now, is the presence of the negro on our soil. 

The Negro in Alabama. 

The negro in Alabama is now, and always has been, a sub- 
ject of paramount importance. One hundred years before 
Alabama was admitted into the Union of States, and even 
before the first civilization was planted upon our soil by the 
French, at Mobile, the negro lived in Alabama a slave. 

As a servant, he was faithful and true to the nation of Red 
Men that lived in Alabama, and roamed over her mountains, 
and prairies, at that time. A little lower only, in rank, and 
in caste, than his lord, still he was low enough for the sun- 
light of care and of thought to never enter his brain, and 
when the Indians went West, their negroes went with them, 
and thus was eliminated the first system of slavery from our 
soil that ever existed here. The French colony at Mobile, 
perished nearly, rather than encounter the fierce rays of an 
Alabama sun, or the miasma of an Alabama swamp, and 
lived only, and thrived only, by the importation of negro 
slaves. In all the fierce contests of the 18th centurj^, be- 
tween the white men and the Indian for the mastery of this 
soil, upon which we now live, the negro was ever found faith- 
ful to his master, on either side, and so he has ever been 
since ; and even in the war between the States, the soldier 
negroes were always true to their cavaliers, and their colors. 
When Alabama was opened to settlement and immigration, 
an elder son, one or two negro men, and perhaps a negro wo- 



147 

man, came on as pioneers, built the first cabin, and made the 
first crop, and ghxdly welcomed old master, and the children, 
in the fall ; and in all things, and all through, and down to 
the end of our terrible war, he was ever faithful and true. 
For two centuries, the negro in Alabama, as a slave, lived 
well his part, whether paddling a canoe for Sam Dale, Smith, 
and Austin, in one of the most heroic and remarkable hand 
to hand encounters of any age ; felling the dark forest ; clear- 
ing and cultivating our soil ; and last, but not least, in his 
faithful care of our women and children during the late war. 
But now the curtain lifts on another scene — the negro as a 
freeman, on our soil. What I have written heretofore, is in 
relation to the dead, and thej' can not rise up, and confront 
me in my remarks ; but what I may write now, I expect mil- 
lions may see, an}'^ one of wl\om has the same right to discuss 
me that I have to discuss them. I wish to make no state- 
ment of fancy, or of fact, that is not true. But I wish to 
treat the subject with that calmness and candor its impor- 
tance demands. We have seen in these papers, heretofore, 
what Alabama was before the war, and what she is now. 
Once the wonder of the agricultural world, now groveling in 
the dust, and her children selling their birthright for bread. 

The agriculture of Alabama, especially that portion tilled 
by the negroes as slaves, exceeding in per capita value that of 
the West, by one-half, now does not furnish a support for the 
people that live here. This condition of things is' not pecu- 
liar to Alabama alone. The loss of production in Alabama is 
55 per cent. ; in Mississippi 54 per cent., and in Georgia 47 
per cent., of what it was before the war. The negro popula- 
tion in Alabama is 45, in Georgia 47, and in Mississippi 54 
per cent, of the whole ; and in like manner, the loss is every- 
where, where slave labor was used, and in proportion to the 
amount of such labor used. It is clear then without any fur- 
ther argument, that the loss in negro labor is the cause of our 
agricultural ruin. I have heretofore analyzed, and stated the 
manner in which the loss comes about. The products of the 
soil of Alabama do not sustain and support the population of 
the State at this time. Nor has it done so, except for a few 
years, when the price of cotton was at least twenty cents in 
Mobile. If there were no figures on this subject, a mere in- 



148 

spection of the farming interest in the State, and especially 
in the Black Beit, would demonstrate this fact. The large 
farmers are broke, ever3'where. Not one in a hundred makes 
a crop, now, without mortgaging for his year's support, and 
supplies. Farm after farm, acre after acre, is eaten up in this 
way, every year, until now it is hard to ascertain to whom the 
lands in Alabama really belong. Whilst houses, fences, and 
everything have gone, and are going, to ruin and decay, the 
poor farmer can onlj- get advances to make cotton. These ad- 
vances all come from the class of non-producers, and are 
made for the purpose of keeping their commissions, and other 
business alive, and not for the benefit of the producer. Cot- 
ton can be tolled, as it passes through the cities, but corn, as 
it never leaves the farm, can not be very well tolled. If this 
business of advancing on cotton should stop, in the Black 
Belt, for one year, what little farming is done there, would 
cease. It is all done in a hand to mouth way — no corn, no 
hogs, no cattle, no nothing. I have shown by figures and 
facts, the condition of this section of Alabama, and in fact 
that of every other section along, and tributarj^ to, the South 
& North Alabama Rail Road, and it is useless to multiply 
words, when the facts are accessible to every one. Some- 
thing must be done, and that soon. Either the army of non- 
producers must break ranks, and fall to the ground, and go 
into the fields, or somebody must starve in Alabama. The 
negro as a freeman, has not, nor never will, make more than 
a support for himself in Alabama, or anywhere else, by his 
labor. If he made all corn, and hogs could be raised here, as 
before the war, and the people in town and country would 
live on meat and bread alone, and wear common clothes, the 
country might stand still. On any other basis, and with the 
negro as a dependence for labor, the country will go back. 
There is no help for it, and with the facts staring us in the 
face, it is useless, and sinful, to shut our eyes to the truth. 
The labor of eighty thousand whites, and ninety thousand 
negroes, cannot feed one million of people, when nothing else 
but agriculture is carried on. There is no use for us to stand 
shivering around this subject any longer. We may fool the 
whole world, but don't let us deceive ourselves. The very 
worst thing a man can do, is to deceive himseK ; and the rule 



149 

holds good as to nations, and States. It is of no nse to 
blame the negro because he won't work, when left to himself, 
any more than there is in blaming him on account of the 
color of his skin. He is simply following the laws of his na- 
ture, as it has been known always, and from the beginning 
of time. He has no interest in the soil he cultivates in Ala- 
bama, and never can have, except at tax sales. They have 
purchased hundreds and thousands of acres of land since the 
war, but with rare exceptions it has been forfeited for non- 
payment of the purchase money. After feeding their pro- 
geny, and paying the commissions on advances, they have 
nothing left, even to pay rent. I will give an instance. One 
of my father's old negroes left home, and went to Montgom- 
ery county, about five or six years ago, and went to farming 
for himself. He was one of the best workers, as a slave, I 
ever saw. He worked well the remainder of the year 1865, 
after freedom came along, as they say, and for 1866. But in 
1867 he got tired, as all the negroes in the South did, when 
voting came along. I met him frequently, in Montgomery, 
In the Spring of each year, he was on the high road to a for- 
tune ; in the Fall, he had to wait until the cotton was sold, 
and the money "wided" out. In December, he always found 
that he had taken the wrong road, as neither fortune, money, 
nor meat, was at the end of his road ; and so he went on, 
from year to year, until one year he came to me in great 
glee, and asked me to go with him to his merchant, and see 
about selling his cotton. I went. The cotton had been sold, 
and my negro was in debt. The account was all right, but 
he had made too little cotton, and had eaten up too much 
corn, at $1.50 per bushel, and meat at 20 cents per pound. 
He, his wife, son-in-law, and daughter, are still working on 
this line, and so they will work till the grave closes over them, 
and then, at least, they will be on the right road. 

I am writing this book with no feeling of envy or malice to- 
ward the negro. God knows I have none ; but simpl}'^ as far 
as the negro is concerned, with a view of finding out his* 
value to our State. The figures of the Federal census give 
his exact value. It is there measured in dollars and cents, 
and as has been seen, it is nil — ivorse than nothing. I did not 
make these figures and results. The negro has made them 



150 

for himself, and our Government has shown him, as it has 
every class of citizens of tliis great republic, at the end of 
each decade, his standing and his marks, his merits, and his 
demerits. When first emancipated, it was thought, for 
awhile, the patriarchal system could be established, and 
every effort was made by the farmers to do so. But freedom 
coming as it did, suddenly, and at the end of a great war, in 
which the whites, their masters, w^ere the vanquished, and the 
Federals, their liberators, were the victors, the negro natural- 
ly looked with suspicion upon any movement of ours, and 
almost implicitly obeyed any command of a Federal ofiicial 
of any kind. And when an effort was made to carry out this 
system, some designing knave started out the " word," that 
unless they moved off their old homes, they were not yet free; 
and the exodus and change was everywhere made. Some 
lingered for awhile around their old homes, it is true, but 
they called themselves by new names, and never were at 
ease. Finally, voting came along, with its failures, and its 
follies, its consequences, and its honors ; and the feeling of 
kindness, compassion and care, engendered by interest and 
association for ages and years, brightened and strengthened 
by the fidelity of the negro to the women and children of the 
South during the war, withering, was withered and turned 
into gall. Oh, bitterest cup of our woes ! Darkest pages in 
the history of Alabama — a conquered people of the white 
race, ruined by the results of a great war, struggling for 
bread, in the midst of a social problem that has never yet 
been solved, suddenly given over by the mailed hand of 
power, to the rule of a people but yesterday their slaves ; a 
people foreign to them by blood, tradition, and race — a peo- 
ple never known in the history of man, to have governed 
themselves, much less other races of men. Passing over the 
political events of the last eleven j^ears — events which I trust 
every citizen of the United States would have pretermitted if 
he could have consistently done so — I will come directly to 
♦the value of the negro, to the material interests of the State. 

I The negro has no monuments, worthy of being noted in the 
history of his race, except such as have been produced by his 
labor, in a condition of servitude. When the negro was 
emancipated, in the South, it was hoped that there would be 



151 

no loss in production, here. The experience of other emanci- 
pation States, had,withoiit a single exception, proved that eman- 
cipation absolutely destroyed the value of the negro as a labor- 
er, and the productiveness of any country once cultivated by 
them as slaves, rapidly went into insignificance, and nothing- 
ness, after they were left to themselves. There is not a single 
exception to this rvJe anyiohere in the history of the loorld. It is 
with regret that I am compelled to record here, the fact that 
our nation is now writing the first pages of a history that has 
been written a hundred times before, on this very subject. 
Sloth, or indisposition to labor, the disease that afflicts the 
manumitted slave, and his descendants,Ms incurable — at least 
no cure has ever yet been found by any nation on earth. It 
seizes first on the limbs and muscles, and paralyzes them, and 
attacks, then, the intellect and brain of the poor patient ; and 
whatever of light, whether human or divine, that has been 
implanted therein, flickering, dies out, and the original bar- 
barism of his nature assumes its full sway. It has been 
thought by the people of the South, that voting, and exer- 
cising the rights of citizenship has rendered him less valu- 
able as a laborer here. The experience of the English Gov- 
ernment does not sustain this proposition. Their manumit- 
ted slaves have no part in their governmental aflairs, as can 
be seen from the following extract in relation to the English 
Colony of -Jamaica, the most important of English emancipa- 
tion States. The author says : 

"Within about the same period of English rule, (from 1655 
to 1801 ) the estimated census showed 310,000 — 30,000 whites, 
10,000 free people of color, and 300,000 slaves. In 1861, the 
total population was 441,264, of whom 13,816 were whites, 
and the remainder half-breeds, or blacks. In 1865, there was 
an insurrection of the blacks, which was put down with re- 
lentless rigor. These blacks had been liberated in 1832. 
Politically, Jamaica includes the Caymans to the northwest, 
while to the northeast, the Turk's Islands, the most southerly 
portion, in fact, of the Bahamas, form a separate dependency. 
The colony is governed as a crown colony. The government 
is conducted by the home government, assisted b}' three ex- 
ecutive officers, who receive their appointments from England. 
There is also an executive council, composed of thirteen mem- 
bers, including the governor, who is president of the council. 
Six of the twelve members are official, and six are unofficial, 



152 

and all are nominated by the crown, and may he removed hy 
the crown. There are a number of district courts throughout 
the island, winch are 'presided over hy judges selected from the 
har of the tuother courdry, and appointed hy the home govern- 
ment." 

It will be seen that Jamaica is gOTerued entirely by the 
Home Government, and still the annual exportation of sugar, 
their principal article of export, has fallen, in less than twenty- 
years after emancipation, from 300,000 hogsheads to less than 
300. This once rich agricultural island is now a barren waste. 
The island of San Domingo represents the condition of the 
free negro governing ,^imself. The two negro nations occu- 
pying this island, Hayti and San Domingo, have a population 
of 709,000. Cuba is a Spanish colony cultivated by slaves, in 
numbers about equal to the negro population of San Domingo. 
The one exported to the United States, in 1874, values to the 
amount of $77,469,826, and the other only $2,260,425. This 
measures the progress of two countries side by side, equal in 
climate and soils ; the one cultivated by negroes as slaves, 
the other hyfree negroes governing themselves. The same meas- 
ure of loss follows emancipation every where ; and the States 
of the South, if dependent upon negro labor alone, will inev- 
itably, and are now, following in the same line, as appears 
from the records of our own nation. 

There is another singular and peculiar feature incident to 
and following the manumitted slave every where, and that is, 
their low ratio of increase, as compared to that of the whites, 
and to that of themselves when slaves. The rule is universal, 
but I will give the recorded experience of our ov/n nation 
only on this subject. By reference to the above extract relat- 
ing to Jamaica, it will be seen that the population must now 
be decreasing yearly. I insert the following extracts from the 
census of 1860 : 

" In the interval from 1850 to 1860, the total free colored 
population of the United States increased from 434,449 to 
487,970, or at the rate of 12.33 per cent, in ten years ; show- 
ing an annual increase of one per cent. This result includes 
the number of slaves liberated, and those who have escaped 
from their owners, together with the natural increase. In the 
same decade, the slave population, omitting those of the Indian 
tribes west of Arkansas, increased 23.39 per cent., and the 
white population 37.97 per cent., Avhich rates exceed that of 



153 



the free colored by two fold and three fold, respectively. In- 
versely, these comparisons imply an excessive mortality among 
the free colored, which is particularly evident in the large 
cities. Thus, in Boston, during the five vears ending with 
1859, the city registrar observes: 'The number of colored 
births was one less than the number of marriages, and the 
deaths exceeded the births in the proportion of nearly two to 
one.' In Providence, where a very correct registry has been 
in operation, under the superintendence of Dr. Snow, the 
deaths are one in twenty-four of the colored ; and in Phila- 
delphia, during the last six months of the census year, the 
new city registration gives 148 births against 306 deaths 
among the free colored. Taking town and country together, 
however, the results are more favorable. In the State regis- 
tries of Rhode Island and Connecticut, where the distinction 
of color has been specified, the yearly deaths of the blacks 
and mulattoes have generally, though not uniformly, exceeded 
the yearly births. 

"With regard to the future increase of the African race in 
this country, various extravagant speculations have been re- 
cently promulgated. An attentive survey of the statistics of 
the census will guide to a more satisfactory approximation. 
The following summary exhibits the numbers of the colored 
race, and their rates of increase, during the last seventy years : 

POPULATION OF UNITED STATES, AND KATE OF INCREASE. 



"Yeaes. 


Whites. 


CD ^J 

is 


Free 
Colored. 


is 


Slaves. 


1— 1 p^ 


1790 


3,172,006 




59,466 
10r^,395 
186,446 
233.524 
319,519 
386,303 
434,449 
487,970 
4,880,009 


82.28 
72.00 
25.23 
36.87 
20.87 
12.46 
12.32 
9.87 


697,897 
893,041 
1,191,364 
J, 538, 038 
2,009,043 
2,487,455 
3,204,313 
3,953,760 




1800 

1810 . 


4,306,446 35.76 
5,862,073 36.10 
7,862,166 34.12 
10,537,378; 35.31 
14,195,8051 33.76 
19,5.53,068: 37.74 
26.922,.537 38.15 


32.23 
37.58 


1820 


28.58 


1830 

1840 '. 


31.44 
23.41 


1850 


26.62 


1860 


22.07 


1870 


33,589.377 


24.76 











" Here the rate of increase will be seen at a glance to have 
been gradually diminishing ; especially during the last thirty 
years. The greater apparent increase among the slaves, from 
1840 to 1850, is connected with the admission of Texas, in 1845. 
For the future, the rate will probably continue to diminish ; and 
to apply, unchanged, the rate of the last ten years, exceeding 
rather than falling short of the truth. The followiug esti- 
mates, therefore, have been comj^uted on the assumption that 
the rate ef the last ten years (22.07) shall continue for twenty 



154 



years longer, or until 1880, after which the rate is diminished 
to 20.0, until the close of the present century for the colored 
population. And to facilitate comparison, the next column 
exhibits the aggregate of whites, free colored and slaves, 
based on the well-known and very correct assumption of a 
mean annual increase of three per cent. 

PROBABLE FUTURE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Year. 



I'ree Colored^ Aggr. White 

and Slaves. | and Colored. 



1870 ! 5,421,900 

1880 6,618,350 

1890 1 7,942,020 

1900 1 9,530,424 



42,328,432 

56,450,241 

77,266,989 

100,355,802 



Percent- 
age of 
Colored. 



12.81 

11.72 

10.28 

9.50 



The Commissioner says : 

"Leaving the issue of the present civil war for time 

to determine, it should be observed, if large numbers of slaves 
shall be hereafter emancipated, so man}^ will be transferred 
from, a faster to a shiver rate of increase.''' 

The war ended, and every slave was set free in lL6o, one 
year after the last above sentence was written, and the results, 
as recorded in the census of 1870, have proved these words al- 
most absolutely prophetic. Instead of 5,421,900 free colored 
and slaves for 1870, we have as a total only 4,886,387 ; and in- 
stead of a progressive ratio of 22 per cent., the basis assumed by 
the Commissioner in the construction of the table, when 8-10 
of the negroes were still slaves, we find by reference to the 
table of Population of the United States, that owing to the 
change from slavery to freedom, the actual ratio of increase 
of the whole colored population was only 9.1 per cent, per 
decade, and that their numbers in 1900 (allowing their rate 
of increase to be 10 per cent.) will be only 6,495,289, instead 
of 9,530,424, as calculated h^ the above table. 

The Commissioner of 1860 concludes his well digested com- 
ments on this subject as follows : 

" The extinction of slavery, in widening the field for white 
labor and enterprise, will tend to reduce the rate of increase 
of the colored race, while its diffusion will lead to a more 
rapid admixture, the tendency of which, judging from the 
past, will be to impair it physically without improving it men- 
tally. 



155 

"With the light before me, it seems, therefore, quite ra- 
tional to conclude that we need not look forward to centuries 
to develop the fact that the ivldle race is no more favorable to 
the progress of the Afrkan race in its midst, than it has been to 
the perpetuity of the Indian on its borders, and that, as has been 
the case in all other countries on this conlinent where the blacks 
were once numerous, the colored population in America, 
wherever, either free or slave, it must in number and condi- 
tion be greatly subordinate to the white race, is doomed to 
rapid cdjsnrpt'ion or extinction. How this result is to be avert- 
ed partially, at least, we leave to the determination of others, 
feeling our duty accomphshed in developing the facts, as the 
figures of the census reveal them respecting the past." 

The superintendent of the census for 1860, Joseph C. G. 
Kennedy, Esq., must have been a man of candid and philo- 
sophic mind. The work he has compiled, and the comments 
made on the various subjects affecting the material interests 
of the United States, stamp the author as a man of most 
wonderful judgment and power of discrimination. We see 
in the few remarks, last quoted, the almost prophetic destiny 
of the negro in the United States. He says first : " The ex- 
tinction of slavery in widening the field for lohite Icdwr and en- 
terprise will tend to reduce the rate of increase of the colored 
race, &c." These are the words of a man who has examined 
the whole subject from a national standpoint. " The extinc- 
tion of slavery will widen the field of white labor and enter- 
prise." We are beginning to see and recognize the above as 
a fact now in Alabama. " It, the extinction of slavery, will 
tend to reduce the rate of increase, <fec." This prophetic fact 
is already a part of the history of this nation. He says fur- 
ther, inferentially, it will cause a difiusion of this race. There 
is no fact better, or more thoroughly demonstrated in relation 
to the free negro in Alabama, than that he thrives better, and 
does better, scattered in small bodies among the whites. It 
is only in the densely populated negro settlements and com- 
munities in Alabama, that we find the thick mists of super- 
stition, unthrift, and barbarism overshadowing and fast creep- 
ing over the muscles, the intellect, and soul of the negro. 
Diti'usion is inevitable, and the only hope for the negro. In 
a multitude of counsel there is safety when applied ordina- 
rily to men. But in a multitude of negro counsel, the his- 
tory of the race shows there is confusion only. He says dif- 



156 

fusion will lead to a more rapid admixture of the races. Po-^ 
litical errors have dug this channel so deep, in Alabama, that 
it will never overflow, and there will be no admixture of races 
here now, and, with this exception, he is right here again, as he 
is everywhere. The next sentence is a long one, and though 
carefully and someiohat ambiguously expressed, is but a con- 
tinuation of the subject matter before us. He says in sub- 
stance, and in fact, that the white races of men on the conti- 
nent of America are no more favorable to the progress of the 
African race, in their midst, than to the perpetuity of the In- 
dian on their borders. A truism well expressed, and histo- 
rically proved. The other races of men who inhabit this 
earth have some power to assimilate with each other. But 
the Indian, the African, and the Mongolian, have no traits in 
common with the present ruling white races on earth. The 
white man is ambitious, hopeful, and aspiring ; the negro, on 
the contrary, lives only for to-day, and cares nothing for to- 
morrow. The leading trait of the Indian character is his 
dependence on the fields of nature for a support. The lead- 
ing trait of the negro character is his simple trust in the tree 
of nature for an existence. Both believe God made them not 
to work. In this they differ essentially from the wJiite man, 
who is told in plain words, that by the sweat of his broAv he 
must live ; an irrepressible conilict ensues here, which always 
ends, and ever will end, in favor of the white man. He closes 
by stating that he has done his duty in placing the above 
facts before the people, and leaves to others the task of de- 
vising some plan to prevent the extinction or absorption of 
the colored race, partially at least, in our country. The 
above facts, and this task, is now before the people of the 
United States. 

It is not generally known, that in 1840, the free negroes in 
the United States were about one-sixth of the slaves, or one 
thirty-sixth of the whites. Before that year, their numbers 
were continually increased, by new manumissions of the 
States. After that, however, the manumissions were small. 
In 1860, they were only | of the slaves, and 1.55 of the whites. 
It is true that the whites increased largely, by immigration, 
and the free negroes but little, and this will continue to be 
the case. The ratio of increase of the colored population of 



157 

the United States now, is only 9 per cent, per decade, and 
that of the whites, 36 per cent. ; their increase is less than 
one-third of the whites. But taking 3 to 1 as a basis of in- 
crease, which is higher than will be continued in Alabama/ 
we will state, in figures, what will be their relative numbers 
in this State, for the next two decades : 



1870. 


1880. 


1890. 


Blacks 475,510 

Whites .. ..5-^1,381 


523,031 
677,799 


575,367 
881,139 





It will be seen that in 1890 the negroes in Alabama will be 
only two-th*h'ds of the whites. This estimate is based on the 
records of our own nation, and are more than favorable to 
the free negro. The commissioner concludes, as— " There is 
no fear here, now, on the subject of amalgamation. The 
channel cut by political errors, is so wide, and so deep, that 
it will never overflow." 

The negro has been a freeman in large numbers in New 
England and the United States for three-fourths of a century ; 
his civil rights were well defined ; his social status as well fixed 
as it is how in Alabama, yet, we find nothing in his history or 
career worthy of being noted, or recorded here. We find 
him everywhere occupying the position only of a menial, and 
such is his position wherever found scattered among the 
whites, all over the civilized world. This is his normal con- 
dition, and it can't be denied when they are in contact with 
the white people an^'where. They make the best menials 
and servants" in the world ; but they require the same con- 
tinual watching and care that is given to children of ten years- 
of age. 

The negro is a peculiar being, and differs widely from all 
other races of men — in that they have no ambition, no aspi- 
ration, no care for to-morrow. I have traveled extensively 
in the West Indies, and the Spanish American negro eman- 
cipated States. I have seen them in every stage of their ex- 
istence on this continent, whether as slaves, or as emancipa- 
ted for days, or for years, and a mere animal existence is all 
they care for or want. As a rule, they are the most docile, 
and most easily controlled of any of the races of man. When 



158 

left to himself to exist is his highest ambition and aim. 
When first emancipated, the old negroes, once slaves, gener- 
ally labor continuously and comparatively well, but as the 
generations come along they grow both physically and men- 
tally weaker ; and finally, and in time, they gradually sink 
away as a race. We have no reason to expect a different 
course for this race here. The only evil arising from the 
presence of the negro in our State, his political significance 
being lost, is that of the existence here of a large, idle, and 
thriftless vagabond population, with no aim or idea of pro- 
gress, and inclined to pilfering and Ij'iug. The negro is not 
blood-thirsty, revengeful or cruel, and steals only to get some- 
thing to eat or wear without working for it. ' 

These are evils the law can never remedy entirely, as they 
are innate and instinct ; but by care and continual vigilance 
they can be rendered comparatively innocuous. The greatest 
difficulty of the situation arises from the fact, that the old 
negroes, as is well known, have no power of controlling their 
children. They see them growing up in ignorance, idleness 
and vice, and are utterly powerless to prevent or restrain the 
evil. They beat and they bang them from morning until 
night ; but, as far as reformation or labor is concerned, they 
might just as well be beating on a board. This is the princi- 
pal cause of the falling off of negro labor in the South. 

What, then, can we do with the negro in Alabama? We 
can do nothing but use every effort to make him useful to 
himself and society. He is almost as much a fixture to the 
soil of Alabama for generations yet to corns, as is the Ala- 
bama river itself. Let us forget his political frailties and er- 
rors. Situated as he was, and being of his race, we would 
have done probably just as he has. He knew no better, and, 
as a race, is not responsible for his political errors. He can 
only be made useful as a laborer, as he has no capacity in 
any other direction. In my travels through the white coun- 
ties in this State, where there are only a few negroes, I was 
much interested in the decorous appearance of the negro 
schools, and the genteel appearance and urbanity of the older 
negroes. Whereas, in the Black Belt and the densely settled 
negro counties, there is a squalid, indolent and defiant look 
characterizing the older negroes, and a careless, untidy and 



159 

vagabond appearance in the children. Education will make 
but litte headway in this den sel}' clouded atmosphere of igno^- 
ranee, superstition and vice, and the only hope for the moral 
and intellectual elevation of the negro will be from their dis* 
semination in small numbers among the whites. When in 
numbers in a given locality greater than the whites, they are 
indisposed to pattern after or listen to advice from the whites ; 
but are controlled in many instances, even now, by priestcraft 
and witchery, leading them fast back to barbarism. The fill- 
ing up of the State with white people for agricultural and 
other purposes, and the dissemination and diifusion of this 
race will do more to prevent their utter ruin and annihilation' 
than any other causes. 

The white man in Alabama, as elsewhere all over the civil- 
ized world, will always look upon and treat the negro as an 
inferior being. No statutes, no laws, no power, except that 
of brute force, can ever change this feeling or sentiment, and 
whenever and wherever the negro attempts to put himself on 
a level Avith the white man, instantly and in every thing the 
white man goes away from him. On the contrary, whenever 
and wherever the negro recognizes this fact, he has the s,jm.- 
pathy and good will of the white man in Alabama. This 
principle of superiority of race is instinct and innate, and ap- 
plies as well to the white man of Minnesota, Illinois and New 
York, as it does to Alabama. The vision of the negro is cir- 
cumscribed by his neighborhood and his county, and if he is 
largely in the ascendant in numbers here, he avoids or at- 
tempts to evade the above given natural law, and the w^hite 
man leaves him and his children as severely alone as possi- 
ble, and the result is, a social organism among the negroes, 
into which nothing enters except ignorance, emotion, and su- 
perstition. It happens sometimes in the large negro counties 
that the negroes, from some cause unknown to the author, 
recognize this natural law, and their material advancement is 
at once marked and well recognized. But these are excep- 
tions only to the general rule, and it is my opinion that they 
will never prosper when huddled together in large numbers. 
Then, by education, by sympathy, and by kindness, we can 
save him, perhaps, from the rapid annihilation which has ever 
followed his race wherever manumitted on earth. 



160 

You can no longer depend on his labor as the ground-works 
of jour agricultural prosperity. See and acknowledge the 
situation at once. Every intelligent white man in the South 
must know that the negro is going here, as he has gone every 
where when left to himself on this earth. Stop cross-firing 
at the negro and depending on his labor for a few dollars rent, 
and do as they have done in the West, and everywhere where 
land is plentiful and labor wanting, and invite, not only by 
words, but by acts, both the immigrant and his labor from 
abroad. You can't eradicate or change this innate and inborn 
principle of indifference to labor in the negro, any more than 
you can change the color of his skin. When a man and his 
two sons are cultivating a farm themselves, and are not de- 
pendent upon the negro for labor, they can make him fit in. 
But when three negroes are cultivating a farm for one white 
man, and he is entirely dependent on them for his labor, his 
farm is gone up. They can be made useful as day laborers, and 
by the job, but no more as the only dependence for agricultural 
labor. I have, with great care and Diuch effort, arrived at the 
comparative value of slave labor and free negro labor at the 
South. It is noio from 32.8 to 36.3 per cent, of ivhat it ivas 
hefore the ivar. In other words, one hundred negroes, of all 
ages and sexes, will perform now effective labor the whole 
year round, to the extent of only 32.8 to 36.7 per cent, of the 
amount performed by the same negroes as slaves. There is 
not a white man in the whole South who will deny the truth 
of the above proposition; and still we cling to this labor 
alone, and hope it will do better. It loill never do better ; but 
following the unalterable instincts of their race, it will con- 
tinue to grow worse. God, in his wisdom, is directing all 
things. He caused the sufficient rain-fall to stop at longitude 
97 deg. He made the rest of the vast region of our conti- 
nent, west of the parallels of 98 and 99, impossible for agri- 
culture, without the extremest effort of man. He also im- 
planted in the negro these natural and unchangeable features, 
that causes him as a freeman to give up, without a murmur, 
the rich soils he has cleared and cultivated as a slave, to the 
ever-restless, ever-moving, new white races of men, who have 
until now always found agricultural homes in the West. 
Within the memory of men now living in Alabama, every 



161 

foot of rich soil in this State was occupied and owned by well 
organized and powerful races of red men. But they occupied 
soils the white man wanted for cultivation, and the remnant 
of these races, forty years ago, were seen marching westward 
in solemn procession, the sacred fires, the last emblem of their 
still surviving nationality, formally borne aloft by their priests. 
They repose now, as a nation, in peace beyond the great 
father of waters. The negro will not go in this way, but sub- 
siding naturally and peacefully where he is, as a race, they 
will go out without an emblem, a monument, or a sign. 



THE MINEEALS OF ALABAMA. 

I will now briefly refer to the minerals of Alabama, along 
the line of the South & North Alabama Railroad. The busi- 
ness of mining and manufacturing is too new in this State to 
authorize the treatment of this subject on the basis of exact 
facts and results, as I have hitherto attempted to do with our 
agriculture. I, perhaps, know the soils and topography of 
Alabama as well as any man in the State, and have seen with 
my own eyes and witnessed every effort or attempt made to- 
ward the development of our minerals, and although I was 
commissioned by the then great State of Alabama, nearly 
twenty years ago, to lay out a railroad with a view, mainly, of 
developing her mineral interest, I confess here to a want of 
that thoroughly practical knowledge which would entitle my 
unaided opinion to any weight. Perhaps, however, I may 
turn over a rock here and there, and some better informed 
man may see the virtue in it. By reference to the geological 
map accompanying this paper, prepared by Professors Hitch- 
cock and Blake, it will be seen that the geological systems of 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia extend into the State of Al- 
abama and stop near its western borders. The only differ- 
ence arising from the fact that the minerals in this part of 
Alabama are found at an elevation, generally, of less than 
600 feet above the sea level ; whereas, further north in this 
State,, and in Tennessee, Virginia and Pennsylvania, they are 
found, generally, from one to two thousand feet above the sea 
11 



162 

level. The coal formations here are not fonnd on the suffl^' 
mit of great and rough mountains, as is the case in Tennessee 
and the States further north, but lie uniformly and evenly 
under the flat surface of this slight!}^ elevated plain. From 
this fact I apprehend that the strata are more regular and 
less subject to the irregularities, horsebacks and faults that 
are often found in the northern part of this State and Ten- 
nessee, and perhaps in the great mountains further north- 
The limestone and other rocks underlying the coal, and con- 
taining all the remaining minerals of any commercial value, 
such as iron ores, come smoothly and evenly to the surface 
in various places all over this slightly elevated and once coal 
covered plain, and expose in great masses and veins the rich 
treasures formed by nature in this system of underlying rocks. 
To my mind it appears that nothing is wanting here, and ev- 
erything is placed precisely as it should be, to make this 
portion of the Apalachian coal field, as it expires and goes 
away, the best fitted practically for the uses of man of any 
portion of this greatest of American mineral deposits. Start- 
ing at the summit of the Blue Ilidge mountain at Jemison, 
the southern rim, so to speak, of the Apalachian mineral re- 
gion, all the way from New York to Alabama, we come, first, 
about six miles north of this place to a strata of roofing slate 
identical with that found in Georgia, Pennsylvauia and Yer- 
mont. While engaged in building the South & North Ala- 
bama Railroad, I examined into this subject as well as I 
could, and spent several weeks at a slate quarry in Polk 
county, Ga., with the sole purpose of acquiring and compar- 
ing information. I had the materials and quarries here also 
examined by experts, or men who called themselves experts, 
and who were well endorsed, and their report was very satis- 
factory and favorable. The slate is found here in layers, or 
ledges, and in large quantities, and it is in my opinion equal 
to any in the United States. We come, next, to the deposits 
of brown hematite iron ores crossing the railroad near the 
strata of slate referred to above. These deposits are found 
in Alabama, dropped along in heaps, in a trend or longitudinal 
row, corresponding precisely with the strike of the rocks of 
this region all the way from Georgia to the Cahaba river. 
Some of these heaps are larger and some smaller, but all val- 



163 

uable on account of the per centage of metallic iron contained 
and the absence of hurtful ingredients, as can be seen 
from the analysis and practical results everywhere obtained. 
The furnaces engaged in the working of this class of ores, use 
charcoal as a fuel altogether, and from what I can learn find 
a sale for their product, now, on account of its quality alone. 
The Shelby Furnace Company, eight miles east of Calera, and 
the Briarfield, some ten miles west of Jemison, are the only 
furnaces using, or having used, this valuable ore aloDg or near 
the South & North Alabama Eailroad. The latter furnace 
was destroyed during the war and has never been rebuilt. 
The former, though also destroyed during the war, carries on 
now the largest business of any company in the State. I 
have been unable to get any of the details of the busi- 
ness of this company, or such as I am willing to print in a 
book purporting to give only exact information. I learn from 
the report of the State Geologist the following facts, which I 
insert here as a matter of general information: 

" Through the kindness and liberality of Mr. Walter Crafts, 
superintendent of the iron works, I am enabled to give the 
following analysis of ore, made by Prof. C. F. Chandler : 

Analysis of o?^ from tlie hanks of the Shelby Iron Company. 

Combined water 9.25 

Siliceous matter. 7.06 

Ferric Oxide 78.86=65.20 Metallic Iron. 

Alumina 2.37 

Oxide Manganese 1.49 

Lime 0.58 

Magnesia trace. 

Phosphoric Acid 0.37=0.16 Phosphorus. 

Sulphur 0.14 

Total 100.12 

100 Iron contain 0.29 Phosphorus. 

Roasted Ore from hanks of Shdhy Iron Company. 

Combined water 3.80 

Siliceous matter 11.74 

Ferric Oxide 81.35=56.19 Metallic Iron. 

Alumina 1 .59 

Oxide Manganese 0.75 

Lime 0.57 

Magnesia 0.12 



164 

Phosphoric Acid 0.11 =0.05 Phosphorus. 

Sulphur 0..6 



Total 100.09 

100 Iron contain 0.09 Phosphorus." 

I regret my iuability to obtain any exact and detailed in- 
formation from the workings of the Shelby Iron Company's 
furnaces, and I gire only the above analyses as showing the 
quality and composition of their ores. 

Col. S. S. Glidden, president of the Alabama Furnace Com- 
pany of Talladega county, Ala., has furnished me with a de- 
tailed and correct statement of the workings of his furnace 
for the years 18 73-' 74^' 75^' 76. I would respectfully call the 
attention of the interested reader to the concise and correct 
statements given by Col. Glidden below. The furnace uses 
charcoal only in the production of iron, as do all the furnaces- 
in this State running on the brown hematite ores; 

" Alabama FuKN ACE, Alabama Company, \ 
September — , 1876. ) 
John T. Mihier, Esq., Neio Castle, Ala. : 

Deab Sir — Herewith I send you the working of our furnace 
all the time she has run, and the cost of the material for a 
ton of iron. I estimate that it costs us one dollar and fifty 
cents per ton for labor at our place. Iron could be made 
now for about two dollars less per ton, as our charcoal cost 
in 1873 and 1874 eight cents per bushel, and in 1875 seven 
and one-half cents per bushel, and now I could contract for 
it at six cents per bushel. I hope you will find all you may 
want in my statement. 

I am yours, very truly, 

Stephen S. Glidden.- 
eecoed of the wokking of aly\j3ama fuenace. 

Blast of 1873-4, 

Number of working days of furnace 30& 

Tons iron made, furnace weights .5,907.B 

Tons iron made per day, (average) 19.3 

Bushels coal used during blast 666,445 

\ Tons raw ore used during blast 13,214.52 

Tons burnt ore used during blast 10,368.40 

Tons lime used during blast 1,113.07 

Cost of coal per bushel on bank 0.8 

Ore per ton on bank 1.30 

Lime per ton on bank 1. 10 

Number of bushels coal to ton of iron 113 

Tons raw ore to ton of iron 2.24 

Tons burnt ore to ton of iron -. l.TH 

Tons lime to ton of iron .19 



165 

9 04 
Cost of coal for 1 ton of iron g'go 

Ore for 1 ton of iron 'gj 

Lime for 1 ton of iron 12*15 

Total cost of stock for 1 ton of iron * • _ 

Number of half charges in 24 honrs, (average) 017^'^^ 

Bushels coal used in -il hours, (average) ' {q iq 

Tons raw ore used in 2-1 hours, (average) *^-^^ 

Tons burnt ore usdd in 24 hours, (average) ^^-o* 

Tons lime used in 24 hours, (average ^- ^^ 

Bushels coal to half charge, (average) or*' 7^ 

Pounds burnt ore to half charge, (average) dTqs 

Pounds hme to halt charge, (average) ^^-"^ 

Per cent, of iron contained m burnt ore • ^' 

Height of furnace stiick „ „, g • ' 

Diameter of bosh 

Blast of 1874-75-76. 

Number of working diiys of furnace ^ft^QQ?"^? 

Tons iron made, furnace weights on 7(1 

Tons iron made per day, (average) nol i.^^ 

Bushels coal used during blast on 44S 

Tons raw ore used during blast ifi'nfiA 

Tons burnt ore used during blast K^R^n 

Tons lime used during blast •^'^^7' 

Cost of coal per bushel on bank ^-^^ 

Ore per ton on bank '^ 

Lime per ton on bank 1 1 4. fil 

Number of bushels coal to ton of iron 28 

Tons raw ore to tt)n of iron ''• 

Tons burnt ore to ton of iron ^-11 

Tons lime to ton of iron • ^ 

Cost of coal for 1 ton of iron ^'qq 

Ore for 1 ton of iron • 

Lime for 1 ton of iron 11 7fi 

Total cost of stock for 1 ton of iron ^^-'^ 

Number of half charges in 24 hours, (avemge) ^"* 

Bushels coal used in 24 hours, (average) '^^'Ji 

Tons raw ore used in 24 hours, (average) */.-^^ 

Tons burnt ore used in 24 hours, (average) ^'-^^ 

Lime used in 24 hours, (average) ^-^^ 

Bushels coal to half charge, (average) ^-- 0^ 

Pounds burnt ore to half charge, (average) »i^ 

Pounds lime to half charge, (average) ■ src «' in 

Per cent, of iron contained in burnt ore ^^ ^'^^ 

Height of furnace stack „ „ „ . ' 

Diameter of bosh 

Here is a frank and full statement of the actual workings 
and cost of making charcoal iron in Alabama. Charcoal iron 
is made all over the United States where ore, timber and 
Hmestone can be found ; but I doubt whether any furnace 
outside of Alabama, can show such a record as this ; and I 
here return my thanks to Col. Glidden for the frank and 
manly manner in which he has given to the public, through 
me, the valuable results of his labors in Alabama. The loca- 
tion and surroundings of his furnace, and the analyses of his 
ores, are fully written up by the State Geologist, in his report 
for 1875. 



166 

A man like Col. Glidden is a benefit to a people like those 
of Alabama, who have millions upon millions of ores of iron, 
and know nothing of their actual and real value, and have no 
capital, even if they had the knowledge, to engage in the 
business of iron making. 

We come next to the limestone of Calera, and Cahaba Val- 
ley. The lime rock along this section of the South & North 
Alabama Rail Eoad — a distance of sixteen miles — is in great 
abundance, and from the analyses hereafter given, must be 
equal to, if not better suited for lime burning, than any in the 
United States. These analyses must be correct, and reliable, 
as they are about the same and made by several different 
parties. 

" Calera has long been known for the excellence of the lime 
manufactured there. At present there are two kilns at that 
place under the superintendence of Mr. N. B. Dare. The 
rock is supplied from the formation under consideration. 

"North of Calera are other kilns supplied from the same 
source. At Longview, section 19, township 21, range 2, west, 
is the kiln of Mr. James M. Reynolds. 

" I give below two analyses by myself, of the limestone used 
by him. 

"No. 1. Compact drah-colored limestone, shoiving occasional 
ci^ystalline faces ; hreahing with splintery fracture. 

Specific gravity 2 . 81 

Carbonate of lime 99 . 11 

Carbonate of Magnesia . 75 

Iron and Alumina 0.13 

Siliceous matter . 39 

Total 100.38 

"No. 2, Very fine grained to compact. From same locality. 

Specific gravity 2 75 

Carbonate of Lime 99 . 16 

Carbonate of Magnesia 0. 75 

Iron and Alumina slight trace. 

Siliceous matter . 15 

Total 100.06 

" Both specimens were tested for sulphur and phosphorus, 
and neither was detected. 

" The limestone analyzed above, is from the upper part of 
the belt, and is probably one of the limestones of the lowest 



167 

Trenton, (Bird's eye or Black river.) Upon this point, how- 
ever, the evidence of fossils is too scanty, as yet, to enable me 
to speak with certainty. 

" All the limestones used for lime-burning at Siluria, Ca- 
lera, <fec., are practically the same in composition as the above. 
There are of course, slight local variations, but from a number 
of analyses fi'om various sources, the carbonate of lime is be- 
tween 95 and 99 per cent. 

" The following analysis by Prof. C. F. Chandler, has been 
kindly furnisbed by Mr. Crafts : 

" Limestone from Mr. Jones', Section 28, Township^ 21, Range 2, 
ive.st, on S. <$: N. Bail Road, near Long view. 

Carbonate of Lime 97 . 52 

Carbonate of Magnesia 1 27 

Iron and Alumina . 35 

Silica 0.78 

Phosphorus Trace. 

Sulphur 0.00 

Total 99.92 

"Near Siluria station are the Kockland Lime-Works of 
Maj. Wagner. The kiln is in section 35, township 20, range 3, 
west. It is built upon Page's patent ; the limestone is raised 
to the top of the kiln by means of an elevator, run by steam 
power. 

"The Siluria Lime Works, Messrs. Holt & Co., are in sec- 
tion 2, township 21, range 3, west, about a mile from the 
station. The limestone is the same as that used by the Kock- 
land Kiln." 

There are seven or eight different lime kilns in this section, 
all using this rock; aud I find, by inquiring of the proprie- 
tors of some of them, that they compete evenly and success- 
fully in quality and price, at Mobile, New Orleans, Havana, 
and all the Gulf ports, with the celebrated lime from Kock- 
land in Maine ; and also at Nashville, Louisville and Atlanta, 
with all other lime made in the interior. The fuel used is 
wood, with the exception of one kiln at Siluria, running on 
stone coal, with results not known to the writer. For the 
business of lime making, I know of no other rock any where 
equaling this, and this industry must prosper here, if it does 
any where. 

The Cahaba coal field is next reached at Helena. I have 
examined and worked, during the war, every coal vein of any 



168 

value fis yet found in this field. The following general de- 
scription given by Mr. Kothwell, at present editor of the 
American Mining Journal of New York, and a man in every 
way fitted by education and experience to judge, coincides so 
nearly with my own views on this coal field, that I insert it 
here, as taken from the State Geological Report for 1875. I 
fear I will not be able to have the diagrams to which he re- 
fers printed. They appear in the State Geological Report for 
4his year, copies of which can be obtained by applying to the 
Governor, or Secretary of State, at Montgomery: 

"Number and Thickness of the Coal Beds. 

" The coal measures of the Alabama fields consist of a se- 
ries of sandstones, conglomerates, and shales, among which 
we find some ten or twelve veins of workable thickness, i. e., 
from two feet, (average thickness of clean coal,) upwards, be- 
sides a number of smaller beds, several of which are from fif- 
teen to eighteen inches in thickness. These ten or twelve 
workable beds are distributed in two series or groups, as we 
find in all our coal fields, notably in West Virginia, Ohio, and 
Pennsylvania. The lower group contains seven or eight work- 
able beds, varying in average thickness from three feet to 
seven feet of clean coal, and making an aggregate thickness 
of workable coal in the beds thus far proved of from thirty to 
thirty-five feet, while the upper or Montevallo series, which 
occupies but a very small area along the eastern side of the 
field, contains some three or four workable beds, giving an 
aggregate thickness of about twelve feet, making the total 
thickness of coal in the field, in beds of workable size, at from 
forty to fifty feet. 

" Without describing in detail the peculiarities of the differ- 
ent viens, which would be out of place in a general paper of 
this kind, though of very great importance in determining on 
the establishment of mines, I may say that the veins of the 
Cahaba coal field are generally free from shale partings, that 
is, they form generally a single bench of coal, and in that 
respect will be found better adapted for clean mining than 
most of the beds of the Warrior field, where some of the 
larger viens have a number of shale bands running through 
them. The thickness of the largest bed, as yet proved in the 
Cahaba field, is about nine feet, but where examined, two feet 
of these nine formed a shale band, leaving the coal in two 
divisions of about five feet six inches, and one foot six inches ; 
where, unfortunately, the thick bench comes on the top ; the 



169 

probability, therefore, is, that the lower bench will be aban- 
doned. 

"Another vein, worked to some extent during the war, is. 
represented to have a thickness of seven feet of clean coal. 
The good quality of the coal from this place is quite evident, 
for there still remains at the pit-head several hundred tons of 
it in large 'lumps, which have resisted very successfully the 
action of the atmosphere for some eight years now, having 
been all that time exposed to the sun and rain of a warm cli- 
mate ; and it is still so serviceable a fuel that many of the 
farmers send for miles to get it for their winter supply. 

"The accompanying sections, one across the southern or 
widest portion of the field, the other across the basin on the 
line of the South and North Alabama Kailroad, will give the 
general features of this field, and show the remarkable fault 
which limits the coal field on the south and east. — See Geo- 
logical Report 1875, p. 52. 

" The South and North Alabama Railroad section shows, 
also, one of those peculiar contortions in the rocks which we 
frequently find in the coal fields ; it is very well defined at this 
point, and has the effect of greatl}^ interfering with mining 
operations, for such plications are the results of a crushing of 
the measures, which makes the coal faulty and not unfre- 
qaently sulphury, even at some distance from the anticlinal 
and S3^ncliual axes, 

" The following are the workable beds proved on or near 
the line of the South and North Alabama Railroad. I place 
them in their order of superposition, commencing with the 
highest, the thickness being the average of clean coal where 
examined : 

" No. 9. Thickness .. 4 ft. in.' No 4. Thickness . . 3 ft. 8 in- 

"8. " ..3 ft. ()in.| "3. " ..3 ft. 3 in. 

" 7. " ..2 ft. in.: " 2. " ..4 ft. in. 

" 6. " . . 2 ft. in.; "1. " . . 3 ft. 6 in. 

5. " . . 2 ft. 6 in. 



Aggregate thickness 28 ft. 3 in. 

" It is true that at this point the measures are compressed, 
and these veins may become thicker as we get some distance 
away from the line of the greatest disturbance ; in fact, in the 
southern portion of the field, we find the beds much larger, 
there being but little disturbance there. The developments 
thus far made are not suflicient to enable us to identify the 
beds in different parts of the field, but I give an approximate 
section of the measures in the "Four Mile Creek," as fol- 
lows : 



170 

"4 veins Montevallo Group, agg'te 12 ft. in. V vein, 3 ft. 6 in. 

yill vein 3 ft. 6 in. IV " 8 ft. 6 in. 

VII " 7 ft. in. Ill " 3 ft. 6 in. 

VI " 4 ft. in.'II " 4 ft. in. 

[I " 4 ft. in. 

Total 50 ft. in. 

" There are probably other workable beds not yet known. 
We can assume the thickness of coal in the southern portion 
of the field at 35 to 40 feet in the lower group, and about 12 
in the upper group. 

" The great fault which limits this coal field on the east, has 
left none of the upper groups of coals, and, probably, not 
even the two highest veins of the lower group, on the line of 
the South & North Alabama Rail Road. 

" While our data are not sufficient to identify the several 
beds in the different parts of the field, yet the dimensions of 
the veins I have above given are from openings made mostly 
during the war, when the needs of the Confederate Govern- 
ment caused it to make extensive surveys and examinations 
of the field, (the notes of these were unfortunately destroyed 
during the latter part of the war,) and to open mines in a 
number of places. 

"The fact is, therefore, fully proven that Alabama possesses 
an abundant supply of coal in easily accessible beds of good 
workable thickness." 



171 





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172 

The above table shows that the Cahaba coals are of re- 
markably line quality, being chiefly distinguished for their 
dryness, small amount of ash, and large amount of fixed 
carbon. 

" Some of the above coals make an excellent coke, suitable 
for blast furnace use, and as some of them are dry burning 
coals that do not coke, they would probably work raw in the 
furnace. Judging from the analyses alone, we would be in- 
clined to consider all of the Cahaba as drier burning coals 
than those of Indiana or Ohio, while in reality the opposite 
is the case. The block coals of Ohio and Indiana, so largely 
used in the furnaces of the Mahoning Valley, do not coke in 
burning, while the Cahaba coals do, though the former con- 
tain about three per cent, more of volatile combustible matter, 
and nearly six per cent, less fixed carbon than the latter. 

"It is noticeable that these Indiana and Ohio coals, ranke(J 
among the best furnace fuels we have in this country, contain 
on an average two and a half to three per cent, more moisture 
than the Alabama coals ; in fact, the analyses would indicate 
that the Cahaba coal is a better fuel, and altogether an ex- 
ceptionally pure coal. It has been fully proved as a steam 
generator, and the coke from several of the veins was used 
very successfully in the smelting of iron for the cannon foun- 
dry of the Confederate States, at Selma, during the war. 

" It may be found that it will be desirable in the case of a 
few of the good coking seams to crush and wash the coal be- 
fore coking, and this will be more necessary in the Warrior 
field than in the Cahaba, the veins proved in the former con- 
taining more soft shale partings which, in the mining, will 
break up and can not be separated from the coal. 

" The coals of the Warrior field appear also to be softer and 
more friable in general than those mined on the Cahaba. 

Wakrioe Field. 

" There seems to be but little doubt that this field is com- 
posed of several basins; for want of proper explorations, how- 
ever, their limits are almost entirely unknown. 

" The enormous thickness of the coal bearing rocks in the 
Cahaba field, being estimated at over 5,000 feet, has no par- 
allel in the Warrior coal field. 

"We have very few analyses to give of the coals from this 
basin, except of those from the Newcastle and Black Creek 
Seams, and from seams in the vicinity of Tuscaloosa. For 
several of these analyses made for the survey by Prof. N. T. 
Lupton, the reader is referred to the Report of Progress for 
1874. 

"An analysis of the coal from the Newcastle or MilnerSeam, 



173 

by Dr. Otto Wnth, of Pittsburgh, Pa., shows the following 
composition : 

Specific gravity 1 . 38 

Water 50 

Volatile matter 28.24 

Fixed carbon 69 . 69 

Ash 10.92 

Sulphur 64 

•' See further, the remarks on this seam, made above in our 

historical account. 

"Of the black creek coal, we present also an analysis mader 

by William Gesner. 

"Black Creek Coal, 

Specific gravity 1 , 36 

Water 12 

Bitumen (volatile) 26 . 11 

Fixed carbon 71 . 64 

Ash 2.03 

Sulphur 10 

Per cent, of coke 73 . 67 

"Its physical characteristics classify it as a firm bitumin- 
ous block coal, with cubical cleavage, dull vitreous lustre, and 
ver}' restive to moisture." 

We have as yet no description of the Warrior coal field, 
founded on facts obtained from practical developments made 
up to the present period. Borings have been made in vari- 
ous parts of this field, and large operations have been com- 
menced since Mr. Rothwell left Alabama, and a large amount 
of practical information has been obtained, but as yet we 
have no man competent, or perhaps willing, to undertake the 
task of working up this coal field on the basis of the facts aa 
they are now found to exist. 

I will do the best I can, but as before stated, I am no geol- 
ogist, and know as yet but little of any practical value on 
this subject. I have an interest in the Newcastle Coal and 
Iron Company's mines, located on the line of the road, ten 
miles north of Birmingham. Although in past years I have 
dug into and Examined every coal vein of any value yet found 
within thirty miles of the railroad, I have learned only here 
anything practically of the Warrior coal fields, from the ac- 
tual workings of the mines. This company is operating on 



174 

the southeastern edge or outcrop of the coal veins of the 
Warrior coal field. The railroad runs here along the outcrop 
of the conglomerate, which separates here the upper and 
lower coal formations. Lying above the conglomerate, the 
highest workable vein yet found is the Newcastle seam. 
Operations were commenced first on this seam by the New- 
castle Coal Company, and some 200,000 tons have been mined 
and sent to market from this vein. This vein is five feet 
eight inches thick, including two hard strata of slate near the 
middle, of two and three inches thick, enclosing about five 
inches of coal. The bearing in, or mining, is done between 
these two slates, and being hard, they interfere but little with 
the clear mining of the coal. A slope has been sunk six hun- 
dred feet, inclining northwestwardly about six degrees at the 
surface, and coming at the bottom to less than one degree, or 
nearly on a level. It is mined cheaper than any other coal 
in Alabama, and a part of a cargo was shipped to Havana in 
1873, and gave great satisfaction in that market, netting the 
miner here $2 00 per ton for the coal. The next workable 
coal below this, lying immediately above the conglomerate, is 
called the Sulphur vein, from what cause 1 don't know, as 
blacksmiths used coal from this vein altogether, for sharpen- 
ing their tools, whilst we were building the railroad. It is 
about 42 inches thick. There has never been any analysis 
made of this coal, or any attempt made to open or work it. 
The next, called the peacock vein, about 130 feet below the 
conglomerate, composed of two strata of coal and of one foot 
three inches of slate, in the middle is 27 inches thick. The 
Black Creek vein, now operated by our company, lies about 
200 feet below the conglomerate, is 32 inches of clear, solid 
coal, with good mining above and below. We have here an 
actual cross section, of perhaps 2,000 feet of outcrop, the 
only actual cross section yet examined, in this field, to this 
extent. The veins here lie remarkably even and regular, and 
are easily mined. Five mile creek, crossing the southeastern 
outcrop of the Warrior coal field, at Boyles Gap, four miles 
below Newcastle, and running northwestwardly at right an- 
gles to the strike, to the Locust Warrior, and Lost Creek, 
rising on the northwestern outcrop of this basin and running 
southeastwardly, and meeting Five Mile Creek and emptying 



175 

into the Mulberry Warrior, both creeks cutting a channel for 
themselves deep into the strata, and falling faster than the 
strata themselves, pi^esent a most admirable opportunity for 
studying and identifying the strata of the Warrior coal meas- 
ures. These streams present the only opportunity for such 
an examination, and I trust some one, competent and capa- 
ble, will make the examination, I have for- years hoped that 
some one would take hold of this matter, and work it out 
properly. The Cincinnati anticlinal is felt, in the gentle up- 
lifting of the coal strata on th<3 northwestern dip of the Ala- 
bama coal fields. The eastern dip is caused by the Jones 
Valley anticlinal, which has brought to the surface, with the 
limestone, the Red Mountain — the most extensive and valua- 
ble deposit of iron • ore in the world. All the coals on the 
eastern, or Red Mountain, outcrop of the Warrior coal field, 
are coking coals, whilst those on the northwestern outcrop, so 
far as I have examined, are the splint coals of Ohio, uplifted 
here, as there, by the Cincinnati anticlinal, and are identical 
in character and composition. The measures lie gently slop- 
ing, or nearly level, all over the Warrior coal field, and are 
classified and understood nowhere except in small areas 
around the various operations now being carried on here. I 
have written to the various operators along the line of the 
road for information of any kind relating to their operations, 
but I have received no response from any, except from Col. 
Sharp, Superintendent of the Newcastle mines, and Col. Aid- 
rich, of the Montevallo mines. I give their statements here, 
and endorse them as true. The analysis of other coals found 
here will be given in the letter kindly furnished me by Mr. 
Thomas, Superintendent of the Eureka Iron Company : 

John T. Milner^ Esq. : 

Dear Sir — In reply to your letter of 18th, calling for inform- 
ation concerning the mining operations of the Newcastle 
Coal and Iron Company, would remark that for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1876, our output of coal has been but little over 
19,000 tons, and this amount mor.tly from the Black Creek 
mines. At the Newcastle mine, we have a capacity for over 
50,000 tons per annum, but no market for the coal ; nor do 
we anticipate one until the iron business has been further ad- 
vanced. This coal is specially adapted to rolling mill use, 
several thousand tons having been successfully used in that 



176 

way. But the distance from the points of consumption with 
the large intervening cost of freight, presents its general use 
for that purpose, until mills nearer home go into operation. 
We have proposed to deliver this coal at Birmingham at $1.75 
per ton. When coal for mill use will be required in this re- 
gion of Alabama, the Newcastle coal, on account of its adapt- 
ability, cheapness, and facilities for producing large amounts^ 
will no doubt be largely mined, and contribute in no small 
degree to the production of cheap iron. 

The great need we feel, in common with other mining op- 
erations, is the want of a manufacturing demand. The prin^ 
cipal demand for coals is for domestic purposes, that repre- 
senting the almost entire demand outside of what is required 
for locomotive fuel. 

We submit an analysis of Newcastle coke, from Prof. Ges^ 
ner. Also, an analysis of Etna coke by same chemist. 

The Etna coke, as you are perhaps advised, is claimed to 
be the best and strongest furnace fuel of any of the Tennes- 
see cokes. We also append analysis of Connellsville coke by 
Prof. Wuth. 

Coke Analysis by Prof. Wm. Gesner. 



Etna. 

Moisture 0.67 

Ash 16.18 

Sulphur 84 

Fixed Carbon 82.31 



Newcastle Washed Coal. 

Moisture 0.28 

Ash 1413 

Sulphur 16 

Fixed Carbon 85.43 



Connellsville Coke by Dr. Wuth. 

Moisture 0.42 

Ash 12.87 

Sulphur 27 

Fixed Carbon 86.41 

It will be seen by comparison, that the Newcastle coke con- 
tains a larger per cent, of fixed carbon and less ash and sul- 
phur than the Etna coke, and nearly as large a per centage of 
fixed carbon, Avith a smaller per centage of sulphur than the 
Connellsville coke. Taking Etna coke as representing the 
best production of Tennessee, and Connellsville as the stand- 
ard of Pennsylvania cokes, we find the Newcastle coke supe- 
rior to the average of those named. 

We take special pleasure in furnishing the following reports 
of practical test, that the distant reader may, by comparison 
with coals of which he is familiar, appreciate the excellent 
qualities of Alabama coals. The general adaptability of 
Black Creek coal only indicates the general character of a 
number of the principal coals on the line of, and adjacent to, 
the S. & N. E. E. 



177 

Hardly more than 2^ feet coal do we find in the Black 
Creek mine, which seems to be the approximate size of the 
veins yielding the best coals. The great future demand will 
doubtless be for coking coal, hence an increased cost over 
working larger veins. 

When a summer, as well as winter's business, can be relied 
on, the output can be increased to such dimensions that a 
manufactory price of six cents par bushel may be established. 
This will give us cheaper fuel than England makes iron with, 
considering quality of fuel. 

You will doubtless get from Mr. James Thomas the result of 
Black Creek coal and coke in the production of metal. We 
learn, however, that the quality is unobjectionable. For the 
value of this coal for gas making, for smith uses, and for 
steam purposes, append the following reports. As a house- 
hold fuel it is unnecessary to furnish any, as its character is 
well known in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. 

Test made at Louisville, Ky., by Thatcher Perkins, Master 

Mechanic. 
lbs. water evaporated 

with 1 lb. coal. per ct. ash. 

Black Creek 1 8.01 I 10.03 

Pittsburgh ....... I 7.44 1 13.00 

Mr. Albert Fink, Vice President and General Superintend- 
ent, says, in reference to the test, in speaking of Black Creek 
coal : " This shows that the coal is superior to any that we 
have tried, both in heating power and small quantity of ash." 

Thomas Jeffers, M. M., recently at Birmingham, says : 
" Having tested your Black Creek coal in various ways, take 
pleasure in pronouncing it the best coal for general use, I 
have ever used, and find it free from slate and dirt, with no 
clinker.' 

Anthony Boss, M. M., Memphis, reports: "I have tested 
the Black Creek coal on both passenger and freight engines, 
and find the same of excellent quality for steaming purposes, 
burning a clear fire and leaving very little cinder, if any." 

James B. Brown, M. M., Vicksburg, says : " I have thorough- 
ly tested the Black Creek coal and find it equal to any I have 
ever used for blacksmith purposes." 

James McKay, Captain Steamer Valley City, writing from 
Pensacola, Fla., says : "You are at perfect liberty to use my 
name in any way to recommend the coal for steaming pur- 
poses." 

Tests of difterent coal, made by chief engineer Nashville 
water works, with the following results : 
12 



178 



Name of Coal. 


Bushels coal 
used pr hour. 


Galls, pump- 
ed pex bushl. 


Per cent. 


Hecla Coal — would not keep up steam . . . 








Fleming Coal .' 


is 12-i'4 

18i 

19 25-26 


7,4831 
8,7931 
7,57ui 


ic 


Eureka Coal 

Sewanee Coal 


21 1 
19 


St. Bernard C'l — would not keep up steam 
Black Creek Coal.' 




15 23-3! 


9,9953 


15 



Test was also made, by order of Secretary of Navy, at Pen- 
sacola Navy Yard, in which Black Creek coal was found to be 
superior to Cumberland, both in heating power and small 
quantity of ash, as appears from the following test : 

Navy Yapd, Pensacola, Fla., ] 
February 5, 1876. [ 
Sir — In obedience to your order of the 14th January, 1876, 
we have tested the sample of Black Creek coal and report : 

The only means of ascertaining the steaming qualities of 
the coal, at our disposal, were a comparative trial with some 
known coal performing the same work. 

For this purpose the George's Creek, Cumberland coal,^ 
heretofore used in the machine shop boiler of steam engineer- 
iug department, was selected, and a trial of each made in that 
boiler for one week, with the followiug results : 

Total numbej" of pounds of Black Creek coal used in 

six days' steaming 6,543 

Average number of pounds used per hour 45.3 

Total number of pounds of ashes and sweepings 

from flues 360 

Total number of pounds of George's Creek coal used 

in six days' steaming 7,086 

Average number of pounds used per hour '^0.2 

Total number of pounds of ashes and sweepings 

from flues 650 

The accumulation of soot in the tubes of the boiler, (while 
■using the Black Creek coal,) was very slight, not exceeding 
that from good anthracite coal for the same period, and witli 
no apparent injury to the metal of the boiler. 

In order to test the availability of the Black Creek coal for 
smithing purposes, a sufficient amount was distributed 
amongst the blacksmiths working in the navy yard, and they 
have all reported its smithing qualities excellent. Several 
large welds were witnessed by members of the board. 

This coal appears to contain but little sulphur, and the 
board is of opinion that its steaming qualities are excellent. 



179 

particularly when considered in reference to the small amount 
of ashes remaining after its consumption. 
Eespectfully submitted, 

J. F. McGlensey, 

Commander U. S. N. 
L. J. Allen, 

Chief Engineer, U. S. N. 
C. A. HigCtINS, 

Foreman Ste'm Eng. Dep't. 
James McDonald, 

Foreman C. & R. Dep't. 
John Cosgriff, 

' Blacksmith C. & R. Dep't. 

George H. Wells, Esq., superintendent Nashville Gas Works, 
writes, " that a 15 candle gas, with a 4.80 foot yield, can be 
easily produced. The principal feature in this coal, is the 
excellent quality of coke it produces, being equal to an}- I 
have ever used. The amount of sulphur and clinker is very 
small. In fact the clinker is so small that, if I were using it 
constantly, there would be no necessity of cleaning the fur- 
naces more than once in 48 hours, wjiereas we are obliged to 
do this work every 12 hours, (using Pittsburg coal). 
Yours truly, 

THOS. SHARP. 

letter from t. h. aldbich & co. 

Mines, Montevallo, Ala., 
August 24, 1876. 
John T. Milnei\ Esq., Neiu Castle, Ala. : 

Dear Sir — Your letter asking for information in regard to 
various matters connected with our mine is received. We 
are pleased to respond. 

-»• * * -» -K- •>!• * 

Our present production is ninety tons per day, but our ca- 
pacity is about two hundred tons per day. We work all sum- 
mer and stock, as our coal stands exposure excellently. 

Our shipments last year were about sixteen thousand tons. 
We expect to ship about twenty-two thousand this year. 
About seventy-five per cent, of our coal is burned for domes- 
tic use. The balance for steam. The tests and experiments 
made by the Alabama Central Railroad Company and the 
Selma, Rome & Daiton Railroad, has led to their adoption of 
it for their locomotives. 

We append below certificates of tests made under the di- 
rection of the Secretary of the Navy, at Pensacola, Fla., and 
elsewhere. 



180 

" COPY." 

Navy Yard, Pensacola, Fla., \ 
December 20, 1873. j 
Commodore 31. B. Woolsey, U. S. A., Commandant: 

Sir — In obedience to your order of December 15, 1873, we 
have tested the coal referred to, and find it to be clean and 
free burning, making steam rapidly, with no clinker and very 
few ashes, and believe it compares favorably with the Cum- 
berland, now used in department of steam engineering. 
Very respectfully, 

A. A. Semmes, 

Captain, U. S. N. 
Wm. J. Landin. 

Chief Eng'r, U. S. N. 
Wm. H. Yarney, 

As'tN. Con., U.S.N. 

" COPY." 
XJ. S. S. POWHATTAN, SeCOND EaTE, [ 

Key West, Fla., April 16, '74. j 
Capt. J, G. Beaxmonf, Commanding: 

Sir — The following is the result of two days' trial in the 
steam launch of the bituminous coal received at Pensacola 
from the Montevallo, Ala., mines: 

Coal used in pounds . 863 

Water " " " 7,996.8 

Water evaporated per pound of coal 9.2G 

The coal burns freely, caking slightly and making no clink- 
er, and apparently but small per centage of ash. It was im- 
possible to ascertain the amouat of ashes, as the greater 
portion was discharged through the smokepipe by the exhaust 
of the engine. With a boiler suited to burn bituminous, and 
natural draught, the result would be more favorable. The 
coal was found to be poor for blacksmithing purposes. 

W. W. DUNGAN, 

Chief Eng'r, U. S. N. 

We will simply add that our coal is classed as a non-coking, 
free burning and very dry coal, very similar to the block coal 
of Indiana. 

Yours, respectfully, 

T. H. ALDEICH & CO. 

I will also refer here to the results of borings made some 
years since in several parts of this coal field, that may be 
useful hereafter in studying and identifying the strata. (See 



181 

Geological Keport for 187G, pages 66 to 74, for this informa- 
tion.) 

Tliese borings seem to have been made with reference to 
no well defined object, as they are incomprehensible and ex- 
plain nothing away from the spots where they were made. 
Large operations are carried on at Warrior Station, the largest 
in the State. I know nothing of the analysis and character 
of coal, except that it answers well for steam purposes. 

A shaft is now being sunk at Morris' Station by Messrs. 
Holt, Aldrich & Morris, young men of the right stamp, who 
know what they are at. They are expecting to reach the 
Black Creek vein, now worked by the New Castle company. 
If this is true, this valuable vein covers a large area of coun- 
try here. 

Notwithstanding the many theories and examinations made 
of this field, we know now, literally, nothing of its economic 
value. We only know that there is coal enough now in sight 
to answer all the probable wants of this generation. It is 
my opinion that the workable beds along'the line of this road, 
crop out north in the little valley at Phelan Station and can 
be found by going southwestwardly some twenty miles and 
tracing them up. The reason for this is found in the fact 
that only the bottom coal measures are found north of this 
place, and I know, going southwestwardly along the little val- 
ley from Phelan, the upper series of strata are seen in high 
mountains on the left, and still farther down coal is found in 
these mountains. 

The market for coal, for domestic and steam purposes, is 
increasing slowly in Alabama, owing entirely to the distracted 
and impoverished condition of the people in this and the sur- 
rounding States. Tennessee and Georgia are recovering 
slowly, and furnish Better markets now than Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi and Florida. The coal mined and shipped over the 
South & North Alabama Kailroad for the year ending July 1, 
1876, including that mined at Montevallo, was 97,000 tons, 
The annual increase now amounts to nearly 33^ per centum, 
and though several experimenting companies have failed, 
either for want of capital or some other cause, the business 
of coal mining on the line of this great thoroughfare is in a 
growing and healthy condition. Their success is due mainly 



182 

to the great effort now being made by the raih'oad manage- 
ment to forward and develop this business. As yet but Uttle 
has been done towards securing a market for onr coals in the 
Gulf of Mexico. Tests have been made by the government 
at Peusacola Navy Yard, and by merchant steamers at Mo- 
bile, Pensacola, Havana and Key West, with the most flatter- 
ing and satisfactory results, as seen from Col. Sharp's letter. 
The coal operators in Alabama are too poor to embark, as 
yet, in the trade of the West Indies and the Gulf. The 
entire capital of all the operators here has been made within 
the last five years from the local business done here, and is 
too small to engage in business requiring outside capital. 
The railroads have exhibited a commendable zeal in the ex- 
periments heretofore made. About 5,000 tons of our coal 
have been consumed in the Gulf in experiments and trials 
within the last five years. But we are at a point now where 
capital is required to prosecute this business to a successful 
termination. D. H. Cram, Esq., formerly president of the 
Louisville & Pensacola Eailroad Company, has collected a 
vast amount of information and published a valuable report 
on this subject. The Mobile Board of Trade, the only intel- 
ligently progressive organization in the State, has also taken 
hold of this subject. They say in their last annual report : 

" The opening of direct trade with the tropical and semi- 
tropical countries, which are so immediately connected with 
us, would invite a large portion of those immense imports 
which amounted last year, in total — 

From Brazil $38,558,028 

" Central American States 1,981,322 

Danish West Indies 465,258 

French West Indies or French Guinea 33,977,524 

" British West Indies 3,802,30 L 

" British Guinea ? 3,214,273 

" Hayti..' 1,741,497 

" Mexico 16,430,225 

" Dutch West Indies 1,192,313 

" San Domingo ... . . 518,92.^ 

- Cuba 77,469,826 

" Porto Rico 7,985,831 

" United States of Columbia. 6,410,964 

'' Uraguay 3,571,376 

«' Venezuela 5,548,526 

$202,888,192 



183 

"At least $134,000,000 of these imports were consumed in 
the Mississippi Valley, but, notwithstanding, we find entering 
by the Gulf ports, from — 

Mobile, imports $1 ,097,164 

N. Orleans " 19,933,344 

Texas " . : 2,426,626 



$23,457,134 



"At least $10,000,000 of all the imports from the countries 
above named, must have been consumed by the people of 
Alabama, Mississippi and West Tennessee, whose trade nat- 
urally belongs to Mobile ; and yet we find Mobile introducing 
not one-tenth of the supplies demahded and needed in her 
immediate tributary country. 

"Such is the value of the products furnished the United 
States by our Southern neighbors. 

"The value of the articles exported by the United States in 
return for such vast wealth, reaches an enormous amount. 
They consist chiefly of those agricultural products which now 
concentrate so largely at St. Louis, the most important of 
which is wheat Hour. 

! 
TOTAL VALUE OF DOMESTIC EXPORTS. 

"To Brazil $ 7,093,187 

Central American States 1,279,329 

Danish West Indies 1,156,126 

French West Indies 1,134,795 

British West Indies 7,480,284 

British Guinea 1,638,115 

Hayti 4,106,i24 

Mexico 4,084,816 

Dutch West Indies 954,852 

San Domingo 748,122 

Cuba 15,231,039 

Porto Rico 1,995,511 

United States of Columbia 5,317,001 

Uraguay ' ,836,4-^1 

Venezuela 2,848,599 

Other South American Ports 76,202 



$57,980,523 



"For more convenient reference these facts are recapitulated 
thus : 



184 

IMPORTS FROM SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA, MEXICO AND THE 

WEST INDIES. 

Value. 

Imports of coffee, 264,510,462 lbs $29,800,327 

of fruits, &c 1,215,262 

" of sugars and molasses 92,618,004 

of tobacco 9,763,312 

$143,396,905 
Imports of all other products 59,491,287 

Total imports $202,888,192 

Exports to same Counties, 

Value. 

Exports of flour, 1,279,643 lbs. $10,722,435 

Exports of bacon and hams, 10,220,878 lbs 1,107,397 

$11,829,832 
Other exports 46,150,691 

Total exports $57,980,523 

" The balance of trade, which is thus largely against us, can 
only be turned in our favor by shipping flour and coal to our 
southern neighbors, through the Gulf ports, instead of per- 
mitting Great Britain to pay our debts in that direction, and 
gather the fruits of commissions and profits." 

Mr. Cram says, in regard to coal and fruit shipped to and 
from Cuba : 

" Coal. — The imports of coal into Cuba during 1S71 were 
315,000 tons. Of these, only 16,932 tons, or less than six per 
cent., American — the remainder being English. But this 
state of affairs has been wholly changed. English coals now 
cost 28 s. to 30 s., and freights range from 17 s. to 18 s. per 
ton, making the coal cost about $15 alongside in Cuba. There 
is no probability of English coals regaining their supremacy, 
even under a decline at home, for the reason that heretofore, 
while the bulk of the Cuba sugar crop went to Europe, ves- 
sels chartering for the round trip would carry out coals very 
cheaply, as it freed them from tonnage dues, and they relied 
for their profit upon a return cargo of sugar, at 50 s. to 60 s. 
or more per ton. Last year, however, the United States took 
68 per cent, of the sugar crop, and this year will probably 
take more, so that a vessel out from England with coals can 
not meet a full cargo of paying freight, if indeed she can se- 
cure finy at all. In most cases such vessels will be compelled 



185 

to go in ballast to some cotton port to load. They must, 
therefore, have a payiiu/ frcic/ht for coals. 

" The recent completion of the South and North Alabama 
Railroad insures the development of the Alabama coal fields, 
to a degree commensurate with their great extent and rich- 
ness, and permits the shipment to Cuba of coals at figures which 
($2 at mines ; $6 at Pensacola ; $0.50, or $8.34 gold, at Ha- 
vana,) will yield a profit of $3.66 per ton, gold, as compared 
toifh present prices of American coed. 

" It forms DO part of our present purpose to deal with the 
coal question, further than to demonstrate that a profitable 
margin exists for the small quantity that we propose to carry. 

" There are no coal mines as close to Cuba as those of Ala- 
bama. There are no mines in the world that produce better 
bituminous steam coals, and no shorter line can ever be had 
than the one we seek to establish. With a coal famine at one 
end, an inexhaustible supply of the exact coal needed at the 
other, and the shortest transit line between the two, a propo- 
sition to supply not even one hundredth of the quantity noW 
consumed needs no argument as to the successful result. 

"Fruit. — The shortness of the route /'or cdl the leading mar- 
kets of the North and West, and the easy means of trans-ship- 
ment at Pensacola, directly from the ship into cars, will give 
the new line unrivalled advantages for the transportation of 
fruit. The fruit imports into the United States during 1871 
amounted to $9,602,030, of which about 72 per cent, was en- 
tered at New York. One-third of these importations was sold 
in the interior, at points as easily accessible from Pensacola 
as from New York, and it must be apparent that if two car- 
goes starting simultaneously from the West Indies, one for 
Kew York and the other for Pensacola, the latter will have 
arrived, been distributed, and eaten up, before the former 
reaches its destination. A serious drawback to this trade 
hitherto, enhancing the cost of tropical fruit and diminishing 
its consumption, has been the waste and losses which are un- 
avoidable so long as shipments continue to be made through 
indirect and unnatural channels. 

"Coal. — The derangement of all Mexican customs, statis- 
tics, and the absence of any, at all other points, with the ex- 
ception of Cuba, and Jamaica, have prevented ascertaining 
the quantity of coal consumed in the Gulf. The records of 
Cuba, however, show that during the year 1872, the four 
cities, Havana, Mataiizas, Cardenas, and Cienfugos, used 
315,000 tons. Very little of this coal came from the United 
States, and nearly all of it from England, where it was not 
only cheap, but was brought out at a nominal rate, in vessels 
coming for sugar, which would otherwise have come in ballast. 
Since three-fourths of the whole sugar crop now comes to the 



186 

United States, English coal can no longer be freighted out 
to Cuba cheaply. This price, and the rising price of coal at 
home, forbids the possibility of its much longer competing 
with American coal. Directly on our line, in Alabama, are 
some of the most extensive, and valuable coal fields in the 
country, all yielding the exact quality needed in Cuba ; and 
as they are the nearest coal mines to Cuba, and as our line 
forms the shortest route that can ever be established, and has 
the most complete dock facilities in the Gulf, for handling 
coal, it seems certain, that at no distant day, this business, 
amounting to 125 loaded cars per day, will pass over our 
line." 

Here is a basis for coal operations, in this direction, and I 
trust our great railway lines will take hold of this proposition, 
and divert a large portion of this trade through Alabama. 
The annual imports, from the island of Cuba alone, to the 
United States, as can be seen from the above tables, amount 
to $7/, 469,825, and the exports to only $15,231,039. There 
is a balance of trade against us, that must be filled up in 
some way. Alabama can only send coal, iron, and lumber. 
At Pensacola, and Mobile, she has the only seaports on the 
Gulf, where the exportation can take place. The towage, and 
extra port charges at New Orleans, amount to from one to 
two dollars per ton, and keep the Pittsburg coal out of the 
West Indies. Philadelphia and Baltimore supply, now, all 
the American coals going to the West Indies. Great Britain 
supplies the great bulk, amounting to 9± per cent, of the 
whole, according to Mr. Cram, notwithstanding she always 
has a balance of trade against Cuba. We pay Cuba gold for 
our balances, and she pays gold to England for coal, iron and 
general merchandise. We are furnishing timber, but that 
counts money very slow. We can furnish the coal, as the shii> 
ments already made, shoiv. We will see, now, about the iron, 
and probably we can beat England, here ; and we can. 

We will now return to Birmingham, and end, heie, our 
reference to the minerals of Alabama. Birmingham is situ- 
ated on an antichnal, called Jones' Yalley; extending, here, 
over one hundred miles in length — it is, usually, from three 
to five miles wide. The limestone appears on the surface of 
this valley. The upheaval that brought these limestones to 
the surface, along this narrow line of one hvmdred miles, sep- 
arated the coal strata that once covered this valley over ; and 



187 

the Warrior, and Cahaba coal fields are now found propped 
up, at tlieir edges, against the east and west bounding sand- 
stones of this valley. This upheaval also brought to the sur- 
face, here, the Eed mountain, throughout its whole length 
containing the largest, and most valuable deposits of iron 
ore in the world. This ore is red fossiliferous, stratified, and 
easily mined. Twenty-two miles south, and lying on the Ala- 
bama & Chattanooga Rail Boad, are found extensive and val- 
uable deposits of Brown Hematite ore. Ten miles north, on 
the S. & N. R. R., is found an extensive deposit of black 
band iron ore. There has been so much written about this 
section of Alabama, that I will say but little, and will take 
the reader immediately into the region of results, and let them 
speak for themselves. The hypothetical era in iron making 
has passed by in Alabama, now. Mr. James Thomas, Super- 
intendent of the Eureka Iron Company, has kindly furnished 
me a statement of the workings of his furnace, at Oxmoor, 
for the three weeks ending, April 15, 1876. Iron masters will 
understand the various terms, and may rely on their being 
absolutely correct, and from the books of the company. Mr. 
Thomas has also furnished me with an analysis, made by Mr. 
A. W. KinzJe, a gentleman of life-time experience in iron 
making, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The coking opera- 
tions of the Eureka company are based entirely on his analy- 
ses, and I indorse them as correct, from my knowledge of the 
man, and the circumstances attending his examinations. 
The Eureka furnace was in blast only seven weeks at first, 
having burnt out the hearth made of fire-bricks. They are 
running again, now, with native sandstone as a hearth, and 
doing well. This is the first efi'ort at making coke iron in 

Alabama. 

OxMOOE, Ala., July 30, 1876. 
Mr. John T. Milner : 

Dear Sir— Permit me to submit the following in answer to 
your questions : 

Yield of Furnace No. 2, of the Eureka Company, for the 
three weeks ending April IHth. 

Amount of iron made 606 tons. 

" " coke to the ton of iron. . . 1 ton 5 cwt. 3 qr. 

" " limestone to the ton of iron, 9 cwt. 3 qr. 

Yield of ore 57 per cent. 



188 

The quality of the iron was fair foundry and mill, slightly 
cold short. The ore is now costing us $1 00 per ton, deliv- 
ered at the furnace. 

The coke is now costing $3 00 per ton delivered at the fur- 
nace. 

The limestone 85 cents. 

The ore we are using is Eed Hematite, and is gotten from 
the Eed Mountain, less than three miles from the furnace. 
The following is an analysis of it : 

Proxide of iron. ... 77 . 07 per ct. Metallic iron 53.95 per ct 
Oxide of Manganese .... Strong trace. 

Silica 13.19 

Alumina 3 . 35 

Carbonate of Lime 1 . 50 
Combined Water . . 2 . 75 

Organic Matter Trace. 

Phosphoric Acid. . .51 Phosphorus 22-100 per cent. 
The larger per centage got in the furnace is owing to the 
ore being more carefully selected than for the chemist. 

It will be no exaggeration to say that the amount of ore in 
the mountain is inexhaustible. 

The limestone is contiguous to the ore, underlying it. The 
following is its analysis : 

Carbonate of Lime 92 . 620 per cent. 

Carbonate of Magnesia 2 . 310 

Silica 2 740 

Alumina and Oxide of Iron . 550 

Combined Water and Organic Mat'r. 1 . 000 

Sulphur 100 

Phosphoric Acid 016 

We have used coal from the Cahaba and Warrior Basins. 
The area of the two basins is 5,250 square miles. The fol- 
lowing is the analysis of some veins : 



189 



COALS. 

Examiliation of samples of certain Coals as below, as to sorfle of theii' pl'opef" 
ties, November 30, 1875. 



DescriptioQ of Coal, 
or name. 


Locality of 
Mine. 




o 
< 


si, -w 

■^ i, 


1 
O 


72U 


o a^8 


"Wads worth Mine . . 


Cahaba Fields.. 


3460 


4.87 


60.53 


65.40 


.68 


6,20 


Helena Mine 


do. do. . . 


3-1.37 


6,05 


59.58 ' 65.63 


.66 


5.50 


Shortridge Vein . , . 


do. do. . . 


37.50 


4.12 


58.38 i 62.50 


.55 


6.49 


Black Shale Vein. . . 


do. do. . . 


32.26 


10.45 


57.29 1 67.74 


.85 


6.04 


Buck Vein 


do. do. . 


35.80 


11.01 


53.19 


64.20 


.82 


6 16 


Black Creek Mine . . 


Warrior do.. . 


31.25 


5.63 


63.12 


68.75 


.89 


5.93 


Gould's Mine 


Cahaba do. . . 


31.00 


7.29 


61.71 


69.00 


.82 


6:34 




KEMARKS ( 


3N TH 


E ABC 


)VE- 






QUALII 


T OF COKE. 











From the Wadsworth Mine, very excellent. 

From the Helena Mine, very excellent. 

From the Shortridge Vein, very good. 

i'rom the Black Shale Vein, good but considerable ash, 

From the Buck Vein, very poor coking qualities. 

From the Black Creek Mine, very excellent. 

From the Goulds Mine, veiy good. 

The workable veins are numerous, ranging from two to ten 
feet in thickness. I know of veins of ten feet in thickness in 
both basins. There are veins of excellent Black Band ore in 
the Warrior Basin. The vein from \vhich the ore was taken 
for the following analysis is sixteen inches in thickness, and 
on the lands of the New Castle Coal and Iron Company : 

Proto-Carb. of Iron . . 75 . 75 per ct., Met. Iron 36.38 per ct. 

Oxide of Manganese Trace. 

Silica 5 . 33 

Alumina 5 . 50 

Carbonate of Lime . . 5 . 05 

Carb. of Magnesia Trace. 

Carbonaceous Mattel*. 5 . 10 

Combined Water ... . 2.26 

Phosphoric Acid 63 — Phosphorus 27-100 per ct. 

Sulphur Trace. 

When Calcined. 

Volatile Matter 32 . 93 per cent. 

Non-Volatile Matter. 67 . 07 

Metallic Iron in Calcined Ore ... 55 . 28 
Twenty miles southwest of this place are the largest depos- 
its of Brown Hematite Ore known in the United States. The 
following is the analysis of the ore taken from one of the de- 
posits : 



190 

Proxide of Iron . . . .76. 86 per ct.jMetal'c Iron 53.80 per cL 

Oxide of Manganese Trace. 

Silica 3.55 

Alumina 2 . 95 

Carbonate of Lime. 5.50 

Phosphoric Acid. . . ,35 — Phosphorous 15-100 per ct. 
Combined Water. . .10.25 
It can be mixed and put oa cars for $1 .00 per ton. 
There is no place known in the United States where iron 
can be made so cheaply as in this locality. 
Yours truly, 
(Signed,) JAMES THOMAS. 

I am not capable of commenting on these figures and state- 
ments, but will add a few words.on the subject of iron making 
here. The Red Mountain ore extends here over one hundred 
miles on each side of Jones' Yalley, and furnishes one hun-- 
dred furnace sites with ores and facilities similar and equal 
to those at Oxmoor, and what this company is now doing can 
be duplicated one hundred times in Jones* Valley alone. 
This furnace is now running, after repairing the hearth with 
sandstone, found here in great quantities and easily obtained. 
A few days ago, I went down to the furnrce. I found the 
yield over thirty tons of, as I was told, a good grade and 
quality of iron. At any rate, it was shipped off as fast as it 
got cold enough to handle. I noticed this iron was being 
shipped to Louisville and Cincinnati, and the President in- 
formed me that he had orders for thousands of tons more 
than they could make. I don't know what they get for their 
iron, nor do I know the rates of freight they pay, but it is 
strange to see a coke furnace starting at this depressed period 
in iron making and shipping their product to a country sur- 
rounded with iron furnaces standing noiu idle. But such is 
the fact. This iron is being made here now at a cost of less 
than ten dollars per ton for labor and materials. In looking 
around, I find this progressive and well managed company al- 
ready building a new and larger furnace, 16 feet bosh, within 
a few feet of the furnace now running. These people must 
have confidence in their ability for making money here or 
they would not be laying now the foundations of a new and 
larger furnace, ^vlien the iron world is so depressed every- 
where else. The superior facilities of this region for the 



191 

liiannfacture of iron have been well understood by tlie most 
intelligent and best informed men on this subject, in Europe 
and America. I will give only the statements of Hon. Abram 
S. Hewitt, of New Yoi'k, the leading iron man in America, and 
of Mr. J. Lowthian Bell, the leading authority on iron making 
in Europe. The statements of these two gentlemen clearly 
foreshadow what Mr. Thomas has fully demonstrated, that 
here at Birmingham we have reached the bottom cost of iron 
making in the ivorld. Mr. Hewitt says : 

" The region of Alabama to which our attention has been 
called to-night, is, unquestionably, the most interesting region 
in the United States, with reference to the interests of iron 
manufacture in this country. It is, in fact, the only place 
upon the American continent where it is possible to make 
iron in competition with the cheap iron of England, measured 
not by the wages paid, but by the number of days labor 
which enter into its production. The cheapest place until 
noAV on the globe for manufacturing iron is the Cleveland re- 
gion in Yorkshire, England. The iron produced from a fos- 
siliferous ore, containing phosphorus, making it cold short, 
coats them about 32 English shillings on the average per ton, 
which represents about ten days labor. ' The distance of the 
coal and the ore from the furnaces averages them about ticen-' 
ty miles. 

Now, in Alabama, the coal and the ore, in many places, are 
within a half mile of each other. The sandstone formation 
thins out towards the south, and in Tennessee and Alabama 
appears to be replaced bj' this bed of fossiliferous iron ore, 
Avhich commences in New York with a thickness rarely ex- 
ceeding two feet, but steadily thickens towards the south, 
averaging four feet in Pennsylvania, seven or eight feet in 
Tennessee, while in Alabama, probably because the forma- 
tion was crushed back upon itself in some way, there are 
places where the iron has been measured one hundred and fif- 
ty fe^'t in thickness. 

The manufacture of iron is carried on, as yet, in rather a 
crude way in Alabama, but the cost of the iron is only about 
ten days labor to the ton, or not far from the labor cost in 
Cleveland. Throwing aside, then, all questions of tariff for 
protection, here is a possibility upon the American continent 
of producing iron, at as low a cost in labor as in the most fa- 
vored regions of the world, and allowing for the expense of 
transportation to compete with them, paying a higher average 
rate of wages than is paid in Great Britain. 

The consumption of iron is increasing at a rate so wonder- 
fully rapid that, in ten years, it will be impossible for Great 



192 

Britain to supply the demand. There is no other country in 
the world which can make iron as cheaply as Great Britain^ 
In fifty years, then, the United States must be the source 
from which the iron of the world will be derived. Instead of 
importing a million of tons per annum, as we do now, in fifty 
or a hundred years we shall export five or ten millions per 
annum. This region, so exhaustless in supplies, so admira- 
bly furnished with coal, so conveniently communicating with 
the Gulf, will be of infinitely more consequence to us for its 
iron than it ever has for its cotton. There is the foundation 
for an industry, and a prosperity, which no curse of slavery, 
nor rebellion, nor interference with commercial laws can ever 
overturn. / think tins will he a reyion of coke made iron on a 
scale grander than has ever been witnessed on the habitable globe. 
The ijresent froditction in the Cleveland region, lohere in 1833 
there was not a furnace^ is note tivo million of tons ; and very 
soon it will be four millions. The production here ivill far ex- 
ceed that." 

The last words in the above extract are italicized. They 
are now written with ink only. In a shorter period than that 
given, these prophetic words will have become a part of the 
history of Alabama. 

On account of the increased production of iron in America, 
and the consequent falhng off in the exportation from Great 
Britain to the United States, Mr. Bell was sent out as the 
head of a commission by the iron producers of Europe to ex- 
amine into the probable capabilities of America in this direc- 
tion. After visiting and examining minutely, and in detail, 
all the iron-making localities of America, he returned to Eu- 
rope, and made his report to the association of iron pro- 
ducers of Europe. Mr. Bell, after reviewing the whole situ- 
ation, and satisfying himself that England has nothing to 
fear from the competition of iron-makers in the Northern 
States, says : 

" So far, I am taking no account of the comparatively un- 
developed resources of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, 
which will, as I have already indicated, prove a match for any 
part of the world in the production of cheap iron. * * *" 

" In a political point of view, no argument can be, as I be- 
lieve none can be, advanced by the North against the devel- 
opment of the iron resources of the Southern States, and yet 
it is by no means impossible that some less favorably situated 
works in the former may suffer more by the competition, 



193 

which, before long, may spring up nearer home, than from 
any that we, in this country, are able to oifer. * * * * 
There seems every reason for believing that pig iron can now 
be laid down in the Southern States, mentioned above, (Ala- 
bama, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia,) at little above half 
the cost of that made in the North." 

Mr, Bell, describing some of the facilities for iron making 
around Birmingham, further sajs of our ores — first of our 
I'ed ores, us follows : 

"That of Alabama and Tennessee is known as the red fos- 
siliferous ore, and lies in regularly stratified beds among sand- 
stone and shale, resting on a Silurian limestone. 

" In one instance, I ascended a hill 390 or 400 feet high, in 
which the measures were lying at an angle approaching 30 
degrees. The uppermost rock is sandstone, in some places 
only a few feet thick, and underneath it lies a seam of the 
fossiliferous ore from eight to thirty feet in height. I walked 
some distance along the crest of the hill, which is a bluff or 
precipice of this mineral, varying from eighteen to twenty 
feet." 

Of the brown ores, as follows : 

" On the hue of the Alabama <fe Chattanooga Bailway 
brown hematite exists, apparently, in enormous masses. I 
say apparently, because it has not been opened out in any 
one place on a sufficiently- large scale to enable us to judge 
accurately of the extent of the deposite. I walked along the 
lands owned by the Alabama Central Iron Company for many 
hundred yards. They are in the low ground and had been 
explored by small excavations' down to the vein, in all of 
which solid ore is met with. 

"A little to the south of this is an ore deposite, the property 
of the Pioneer Iron Company. It consists of a rounded hill, 
on ascending \vliicli, when within 150 to 200 feet from the 
summit, boulders of brown hematite are seen on the surface, 
and the watercourses exhibit the rock composed of solid ore. 
The barred masses, forming the crest of the hill, appeared 
passing into a more silicious form of the mineral. In one or 
two places excavations have been made and a face exposed 
of solid ore, ver}^ much resembling that to be seen at Somor- 
rostro in Spain. 

"From this locality I walked through forest lands for fully 
a mile, and judging by the loose blocks and occasionally solid 
rock open to view, the summits of the eminence consisted also 
of this brown hematite." 
13 



194 

Speaking of the unexampled facilities for iron making ha. 
Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, he refers to the locality of 
Birmingham as follows : 

" The distances which intervene between the coal and ore, 
and which are more or less conspicuous in many other iron 
making districts in the United States, are so modified in many 
parts of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia as 
to place several localities in these provinces in a position of 
equality with the most favored of those which I have exam^ 
ined in Europe. 

"As an example of this, I would ask you to imagine a section 
of country of which the western portion is the Warrior coal 
field. Between this and the Cahaba coal formation lies 
Jones' Valley, a few miles in width, containing the brown and 
red fossiliferous ores already described. We thus have two 
coal fields bounding for several miles, on the east and west, 
deposits of ore of immense magnitude, while on the eastern 
margin of the Cahaba coals are other extensive deposits of 
brown ore, and underneath, geologically speaking, an abund- 
ance of Silurian limestone. 

"Notwithstanding these unsurpassed facilities for the pro- 
duction of cheap iron, it can scarcely be pretended that more 
has been done than merely to recognize the existence of all 
this mineral wealth. No doubt there are some difficulties 
which must be removed before the Southern States assume 
that position to which their natural resources one day will 
undoubtedly raise them." 

These statements, together with the practical demonstra- 
tions of the Eureka company, forever put at rest the question 
as to where the cheapest iron in the world can be made. It 
is made here, notwithstanding our difficulties and hitherto 
unfortunate surroundings. We stand now shoulder to shoulder 
with old England in the production of cheap" iron. From the 
following statements of the cost of iron making at the iron 
producing centers of the North and West, it can easily be 
seen why the Eureka people are building a new furnace now, 
notwithstanding their market is on or beyond the Ohio river, 
I quote from the statement of Mr. Norton, president of the 
Norton Iron Works, copied from the Wheeling (W. Va.) In- 
telligencer : 

" We had the pleasure yesterday of meeting with E. M. 
Norton, Esq., a former citizen of Wheeling and one of our 
early manufacturers in the iron business. As is generally 



195 

known he is now a resident of Ashland, Ky., where he is at 
the head of the Norton Iron Works, a concern that embraces 
one of the largest blast furnaces in the country and a nail 
mill that runs eighty machines. Mr. Norton has been in the 
iron business since his boyhood, or about fifty years, and has 
of course seen a great many of its ups and downs. He thinks, 
however, that the present depression is the most dishearten- 
ing of any that he has ever known. 

" In all former crises of the business we had the tariff to 
fall back on. The imposition of an additional duty, as long 
as we had not over produced ourselves at home, saved us 
from too much foreign competition and reanimated the droop- 
ing tendencies of the business. Now, however, the condi- 
tions have radically changed. Under the wonderful and un- 
natural stimulus given to the iron business during the war 
and since, especially by the great rise in prices in 1871-72, 
blast furnaces and rolling mills sprang up with rapidity, not 
only in this country, but in Europe. England, France, Belgium 
and the United States, all competed with each other in the 
multiplication of their facilities for the production of iron. 
The consequence was that when the panic of September, 1873, 
came upon us and prostrated the immense extension of our 
railroad system that was going on so rapidly (having reached 
10,000 miles in a single year), we lost at one blow the con- 
sumption of half the iron that was made. The situation, 
therefore, was, that with nearly seven hundred furnaces on 
hand in this country and a like increase of them in England, 
we had not demand for half their product. Under such cir- 
cumstances the tendency of iron for the last year and a half 
has been steadily downward in price, and this, too, without 
regard to the cost of production. The markets of the world 
has been glutted with this surplus iron, and the furnaces that 
produced it have been losing money and going out of blast. 
The consequence is, that although one-half of the furnaces of 
this country are now out of blast, yet the price of iron re- 
mains below the cost of production. 

" Mr. Norton is of the opinion that the future of the busi- 
ness has been discounted for many years ahead, and that even 
should railroad building revive we still have for an indefinite 
time to come too many blast furnaces. The question of profit, 
therefore, i-esolves itmlf into the matter of location. There are 
localities in which iron can be produced at a living profit, 
while there are others where the furnaces must remain closed, 
Mr. Norton considers his own location at Ashland, one of the 
favored spots of the country for the production of metal. He 
gives us the figures for producing a ton of iron, as follows : 



196 

One ton of native ore $ 3.25 

One ton of Missouri ore 6 00 

Transportation on same 2.75 

Handling same at furnace 20 

Seventy-five bushels of coal at 5 cents 3.75 

Cost of labor per ton 2.50 

Cost of limestone 75 

Cost of mill cinder , 50 

Total cost per ton $19.70 

" In case the native ore is used exclusively, three tons of it 
will make a ton of iron. The cost of putting Ashland iron, 
when made, into the Cincinnati market, is one dollar per ton. 
The cost of making a ton of iron at Pittsburg, at present pri- 
ces of ore, is estimated by Mr. Norton as follows : 

"A ton and a half of Lake Superior ore costs at Cleveland, 

say , $10.50 

Transportation of same 3.75 

Eighty bushels of coke at 5 cents 4.00 

Labor , 2.00 

Limestone .75 

Mill cinder 50 

Total cost ^ $21.50 

Mr, Norton regards Jackson county, Ohio, on the line of 
the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, as one of the cheapest 
localities in the country for producing iron. He gives the 
cost there per ton, as follows : 

Two and a half tons of native limestone ore, at |3 50 

per ton $ 8 75- 

Native coal, 75 bushels, at 5 cents 3 75 

Labor 3 00' 

Limestone 50 

Tatal cost $16 00 

The cost of transportation on iron from Jaekson county to 
the Cincinnati market is about $2 50 per ton. 

These three points Mr. Norton considers the most highly 
favored localities in the country for producing cheap iron. 
The only advantage that Pittsburg has over Wheeling is in 
the transportation of coke, which amounts to about $2 40 per 
ton. While, therefore, iron can be made at $21 50 per ton 



197 

at Pittsburg, it will cost, say, $23 90 at "Wheeling. All these 
estimates, as will be seeu, allow nothing for wear and tear, 
shortage, casualties, interest on investment, taxes, etc., which 
will add at least $2 per ton to the figures we have given. 

Some people may think it strange, that localities like St. 
Louis and the Lake Superior region would not be enumerated 
among the points where cheap iron can be made, but at these 
places fuel is dear and has comparatively no home market. 
Connellsville coke costs from 14 to 18 cents per bushel at St. 
Louis, and charcoal is used in the Lake Superior country. 
As regards the Alabama and Tennessee ore fields, their pro- 
duct having a tendency to cold short, is not adapted to the 
general uses of iron manufacture, and, in addition, must be 
transported long distances by rail to the principal markets of 
the country. 

As to such places as Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and 
similar localities, Mr. Norton regards them as having no sub- 
stantial advantages whereon to build an iron furnace, having 
to transport most of their fuel from Pittsburg. 

In regard to the vicissitudes of the iron business in future, 
much depends on the financial policy of the government. The 
tariff, as has been observed, has done all for us that it can do. 
"We certainly do not want to stimulate the business any fur- 
ther by that means, seeing that it is so largely overdone. The 
climax of the old whig argument has been reached, viz : that 
the legitimate result of protection was to give us an abun- 
dance of competition among ourselves, and consequent ulti- 
mate low prices. This state of things we now have. Our 
competition is alread}^ too great for the field it is confined to 
by reason of our currency, viz: our home markets. Our hope 
for the future, so far as regards our export trade, depends on 
our currency. We can never build up a traffic with Canada, 
South America, Mexico, and other countries, until we reach 
a sound currency ; that is, such a currency as enables other 
countries to produce iron cheaper than we now produce it. 
It is, therefore, Mr. Norton's opinion, that until we approxi- 
mate much nearer to a specie basis than at present, there can 
be no general revival of the iron business, and whatever pros- 
perity may ensue in certain localities will he due solely to natu- 



198 

ral advantages. The parties having these advantages will, of 
course be careful to keep prices at a point that will forbid a 
general revival, and thus we will probably see a great deal of 
capital locked up /or a long time to come in unproductive enter- 
prises. 

We see here the cost of making iron at the most favored 
spots of the West put down at $16, $19 70, and $21 50— with 
$2 50 freights to Cincinnati from the cheapest iron producing 
points in the West. By a close analysis of the materials used 
here at Oxmoor, and at the points named, it will be seen that 
they compare as follows : 

COST OF MAKING lEON. 



Ashland, Ky. 



PittsbukCt, Pa. 



1 ton native ore $ 3 25 

1 ton Missouri ore 6 00 

Transportation on same 2 75 



Handling same at furnace . 
75 bushels of coal, at 5 cents. 

Cost of limestone . . . , 

Cost of mill cinder 



20 



I3 tons of Lake Superior ore, at 

Cleaveland, O 

Transportation on same. . . 
80 bushels coke, at 5 cents. 



3 75iLimestone . 



Total cost of materials $17 20 

Labor 2 50 

Total cost- $19 70 



Mill cinder. 



Total cost materials. 
Labor 



$10 50 
. 3 75 
. 4 00 
. 1 75 
50 

41d 50 
. 2 00 



Total cost $21 50 



Jackson Co. , O. 

2^ tons native limestone ore, at 

$3 50 $ 8 75 

75 bushels coal, at 5 cents 3 75 

Limestone 50 

Total cost materials $13 00 

Labor 3 OU 



Total cost $16 00 



OXMOOE, AImS.. 

1| tons ore, at $1 $ 1 75 

Coke, 1 ton, 5 ewt., 3 qrs 3 86 

Limestone, 9 cwt. , 3 qrs 40 



Cost materials, only $ 6 01 

Add average labor of the three 
above places 2 50 

Total cost $ 8 51 



A fervid thrill of delight passes through my frame as I con- 
template these tables and see the future of my beloved Ala- 
bama, In humble adoration I pause here to give thanks to 
the Ruler of the Universe, in the name of and in behalf of 
my people, for the wonderful results presented here. For 
some purpose, perhaps in compensation for the great trials we 
have gone through in Alabama, He has reserved until now 
the disclosures here made. 



199 

The above figures and facts refer only to the iron business 
of the West. I will here publish a statement taken from the 
books of the Thomas Iron Company, of Hokendaqua and 
Catasanqua, Pennsylvania, using anthracite coal as a fuel. 
These are the largest, best known, and most successful fur- 
naces in America. These extracts were furnished " The En- 
gineering and Mining Journal," through John E. Church, E. 
M,, and are correct and authentic through a period extending 
from December, 1855, to December, 1875. 



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202 

If we will refer back to the table, as furnished by Mr. 
Thomas, of Oxmoor, Alabama, it will be seen that the mate- 
rials — coke, ore and limestone — for the production of pig iron 
cost here $6.01 ; whilst the average, as given in the above ta- 
ble, for the last twenty years is $17.07, or a difference in our 
favor of $11.06; or an amount nearly equalling one-half the 
total cost of production in eastern Pennsylvania, which is, as 
appears from the table, $22.94; or, adding here the same 
amount for labor and repairs as is given in the above table, 
or $4.72, as an average, we have a total cost here of ten dol- 
lars and seventy -three cents, against tiventy-two dollars and ninety- 
four cents in Eastern Pennsylvania. 

" Quosque, tandem ahutere, Catalina, patientia nostra ?" How 
long will it take the iron world to learn wisdom ? These ta- 
bles, as presented above by the elder Thomas of Pennsylva- 
nia, are as absolute and conclusive as human evidence can be. 
The facts given by his kinsman, the younger Thomas of Ala- 
bama, are equallj' convincing and true. Yet the world heeds 
them not. 

These figures and facts are not mine ; they are the result of 
years of experience. There is margin enough here to place 
pig iron from Birmingham, at ordinary rates of freight, in 
every furnace yard from Pittsburg to St. Louis. There is also 
margin enough to place it free on board at New Orleans, Mo- 
bile, or Pensacola, and ship it to the cities of Philadelphia 
and New York, to the ports on the Mediterranean, down the 
Spanish Main, and all over the Indian Ocean, on equal and 
even terms with Great Britain, now our only rival in iron 
making on earth. The materials for duplicating the above 
results are not pent up or contracted here in Alabama, but lie 
thickly every where, in every direction within a radius of fifty 
miles around the city of Birmingham. I refer the reader to 
the excellent letter furnished me by Mr. Thomas, and printed 
above, for information on this subject of iron making here, 
every word of which I endorse as true. 

In the matter of shaped or rolled or cast iron, we have ad- 
vantages that will, at least, warrant the production here of 
every thing needed in this line in Alabama and the adjoining 
States. Mr. Sharp, of the Newcastle mines, for Birmingham 
places coal at $1.75. He can and will do it for one dollar 



203 

and fifty cents, and get rich. These large coal veins run 
along in sight of the city of Birmingham and can be easily 
reached by a short raiboad, over level ground, from the city. 
(The free burning coals may cost $2 per ton run of the mines 
shipped from any where along the South & North or Ala- 
bama & Chattanooga Railroads.) On the coal question we 
may not equal, with the present developments, the city of 
Pittsburg, and perhaps not Wheeling, but I know of no other 
manufacturing centers that can beat us, even now, in the 
price and quality of our coals for manufacturing purposes. 
We have already shown that in iron product we are ahead of 
any other section of the United States. In coal we are at 
least equal with the exceptions above named. In climate and 
health we are at least equal to any section of the United 
States. Why then can we not produce our shape iron at 
home, at least as much of it as we need. We can and icill. 
(The best and cheapest stationary steam engine now in Ala- 
bama, was made recently by Mr. Williamson, of the Birmmg- 
ham foundry. I am capable of judging of matters of this 
kind.) The rails for the South & North Alabama Railroad 
are rerolled at New Albany, Indiana. The pig iron for the 
purpose of making up the pile or proportion of new iron re- 
quired in rerolling, is taken from Birmingham to New Albany, 
Indiana. The President and Secretary of the New Albany 
Rolling Mill was here a year ago, and I heard the President 
tell the Governor of Alabama that the difference in coal alone 
at Birmingham was equal to five dollars per- ton of rerolled 
rails. Now this five dollars per ton, added to the freight on 
pig iron and old rails both ways, to say nothing of our cheap 
pig iron produced here, does seem like there is a margin in 
making rails here at Birmingham, our coal and iron center. 
The rails of the interior and south Alabama are taken to At- 
lanta for rerolling, and the coal and pig iron are carried fi-om 
Alabama for this purpose. The Atlanta Rolling Mill used 
ten cars of coal per day. The freight on this coal from the 
South ct North road, was $30 per car, or $300 per day, or 
$90,000 per annum, or enough money to build a mill noio in 
one year. It may be said Atlanta had coal nearer than ours. 
But I know the fact that Alabama coal, paying the $30 1r eight, 
was the cheapest and best furnished the rolling mill at At- 



204 

lanta. This was on account of our better mining facilities 
here. The Atlanta Rolling Mill Company failed. Any busi- 
ness paying annually an absolute bonus equal to its whole value 
ought to and will fail any where on earth. The system of 
railroads south and southwest, and contiguous to Birmingham, 
as the nearest iron and coal center, require even now, in the 
present impoverished condition of our section, 10,000 tons of 
rails annually, besides hundreds and thousands of tons of 
other irons. (Still we take our coal and iron on our backs 
and trudge from 300 to 500 miles to get it slicked over.) We 
have in Alabama the last, best and farthest extended outpost 
of the greatest mineral region in the world, into a section of 
country paying gold for every thing they are using ; and con- 
suming, necessarily, in their various industries and operations 
large quantities of wrought iron, there is only a single rolling 
mill in Alabama, founded and standing on the energies of one 
old man, Richard Fell, already passed or near his three-score 
and ten years, who, with no capital except his stout English 
heart, began with his two sons and son-in-law, Hon. R. W. 
Cobb, only five years ago to rebuild at Helena the rolling mill 
destroyed by the war, and is now successfully fighting old 
England in her almost monopoly of iron cotton-ties. James 
Noble, another countryman of Mr. Fells, with an energy al- 
most superhuman, has filled up Rome, Ga., with industries of 
all kinds, since the war. But he tells me that the freights 
paid on coal from the South & North road, the cheapest and 
best coal he could get, was 25 per cent, net profit on his in- 
dustries, or just so inuch dead loss on his business. We come 
4iow to Chattanooga, the only place in America that pretends 
to rival this section of Alabama in coal and iron production. 
I will approach this subject with caution and candor, and try 
to do justice to our only real rival. Chattanooga appears well 
located on the map, or on any map, for becoming a great iron 
center, and I have no doubt her good people believe that they 
are standing on the bottom rock in this business, in the South 
and in the United States. But such a man as Michael Tuo- 
mey, our old and honored State geologist, if alive now, would 
show them in two pages of a well-written book, that beneath 
them and between them and the real bottom rock, was a live 
strata of undeniable facts, here in Alabama, that was slowly 



205 

but stirel}' underminiag their hopes, and iu time they and 
their pretensions would tumble in and be ruined, as are At* 
lanta, Rome, and all other places importing coal and iron, as 
they now are from this section of Alabama, as a basis of their 
industries, I know that the people of Chattanooga will take 
issue with me here, but if the reader will only look upon the 
geological map accompan3'ing this work, he will see that the 
coal fields around Chattanooga have had a great struggle to 
save tjiemselves from being washed away and ruined by the 
convulsions of nature, when the channel in which now runs 
the Tennessee river was formed. Only the coal lying on the 
tops of the great convulsed mountains was saved, and this so 
distorted and shaken up that a miner never knows to-day 
that he will have coal vein to-morrow. Sometimes the coals 
are hid away and squatted in heaps behind these great moun- 
tains, as at the Roane Iron Works. Again, they are lost, dis- 
placed and entirely gone, as at the Rising Fawn Furnace. 
This splendid furnace, working ores identical with those of 
the Red Mountain here, went into blast about twelve months 
ago, and after expending hundreds of thousands of dollars 
hunting for their lost coal and occasionally finding it, but al- 
ways full of dirt and impurities, is now cold and standing idle, 
whilst our people at Oxmoor are running prosperously, and 
even actually engaged in the construction of a new and larger 
furnace. It will cost money to move a large and well ap- 
pointed furnace like that at Rising Fawn to the vicinity of 
Birmingham, but the shadows are already seen and the sub- 
stance will be here soon. The furnaces at Chattanooga are 
supplied daily with red ore from Gadsden, Ala., brown ore 
from Woodstock, thirty miles south of Birmingham. I will 
leave this subject right here for the present. The transpor- 
^IsQition facilities of Chattanooga will be unsurpassed soon. 
The periodical inundations from the river, however, will al- 
ways be a drawback to their permanent prosperity. Years 
ago I surveyed a railroad line to Chattanooga. Getting the 
high-water mark at the old Indian town of liossville, as it loas 
called, several miles below the present site of Chattanooga, 
and attempting to keep above the overflow of the river, I 
passed by on the mountain side the present site of Chatta- 
nooga altogether. I was surprised then and thought the old 



206 

Indian mark wrongs but the several overflows of the whole 
city since, convince me that the Indians were right. 

There is nothing wanting here in Central Alabama, but 
capital and labor, and even our negro labor, from some cause, 
does better in the coal and iron business than in farming. 
This business being carried on mainly by the piece, by 
the job, or by the days work, and only using the labor 
of grown men is the principal reason. The transporta- 
tion facilities now are confioed to the two great railroad lines, 
the one leading from Louisville to Pensacola and Mobile, and 
the other soon to be from Cincinnati to New Orleans and the 
Southwest. Tuscaloosa, the head of navigation on the War- 
rior river, is fifty-six miles by rail, and Montgomery and 
Selma on the Alabama river, ninety-six miles from Birming- 
ham, and railroads are in course of construction from Mobile 
and Savannah. The former, from its low grades, if ever com- 
pleted, will become the Heading railroad of the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. If water transportation is ever needed the Warrior and 
Cahaba rivers, cutting as they do so deeply and smoothly in 
the strata, can be easily improved. It is not generally known, 
but it is a fact, that the water in the Warrior river opposite 
Blount Springs is only 270 feet above tide at Mobile, or 100 
feet above loater level at Tuscaloosa, Such a basis for slack 
w^ter navigation is unknown in any mineral region in the 
world. Alabama is making now her first marks in mineral 
development, and can compare with nothing in the amount 
and value of her actual productions. Pennsylvania is now 
the leading State in the procluction of mineral values, and 
will continue to be so in coal product for generations to come. 
But, in iron, Alabama will be up with and even with Penn- 
sylvania in less than twenty years. In 1860 the total prop- 
erty of Pennsylvania was 11,416,501,818, and of Alabama 
$792,000,000. In 1870 Pennsylvania had risen to $3,808,340,- 
112, and Alabama had fallen to $'201,855,841. In 1860 our 
property was one-half that of Pennsylvania; in 1870 only 
one-nineteenth. We have been crawling backwards and 
Pennsylvania forwards, and we are now, in comparative 
wealth, a long way apart. But twenty years from to-day, in 
the production of the raw materials, coal and pig iron, and in 



207 

the value of our crop products, we will be lier equal again. 
We can not and will not build here the great manufactures of 
Pennsylvania in twenty years. Time alone will do this. 
But it will be done, and the child is now born who will live to 
see the industries of Alabama, of all kinds, equal to those of 
Pennsylvania. The climate and health of the mineral region 
of Alabama is unexceptionable, and all that could be desired, 
Blount Springs, in this region, is a famous watering place, 
visited by people in search of health everywhere, from the 
Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. It is another of the wonders of 
this wonderful State. These Springs are so well known and 
advertised that it is a waste of paper to write more of them 
here. The yellow pine timber covering the country, fi'om 
Jemison to Montgomery, is a complement to the varied in- 
dustries growing up along the line of this great Railroad. It 
is being shipped now in large quantities every day to Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois. In the development of and building 
up this lumber business, as of every other interest, the man- 
agement of the Louisville & Nashville & Great Southern Rail 
Road Company have exhibited a business acumen and fore- 
sight that entitle them to the thanks of the people of this 
section of Alabama. I have laid down the predicate in these 
pages for an examination of the varied industries, or rather 
basis of industries of Alabama, and I hope some person, bet- 
ter qualified than I am, will take up this subject where I 
leave it off, and continue until Alabama is herself, again. In 
addition to the agriculture, we have now a basis for mining 
and manufacturing interests never known or understood be- 
fore the war* If our fields were all barren, (which they are 
not,) we have in our other industries the basis of great wealth 
waiting, as is our agriculture, only for capital and effective 
labor. 

This whole book has been written without any reference to 
style, orthograph}', or the construction of the sentences. 
Not a page or a line has been revised, or rewritten, and I 
trust the public will see that I am driving at the substance, 
rather than the form of my subject. 



208 

CONCLUSION. 

This synopsis is already much longer than was intended at 
first. I have condensed it, however, as much as the magni- 
tude and importance of the subject will allow. I have 
demonstrated the superior merit of the soils of Alabama, 
when properly cultivated and tilled, in the production of ag- 
ricultural values, by comparisons with the soils of other 
States of the Union, alike cultivated and tilled. I have 
shown, also, the meagreness of the crop productions of these 
identical soils, at this time amounting, in 1870, in the coun- 
ties considered in this paper, to only 43 per cent, of what 
they were before the war. I have shown, also, that the 
shrinkage in the effective value of negro labor, amounting 
now to from 32.8 to 36.7 per cent, only, of what it was before 
the war, is the sole cause of this loss in production, and that 
from the well-known history of the emancipated slave the 
world over, and from the beginning of time, we can expect no 
improvement hereafter in the effective value of their labor. 
Such a paralysis in production as has been found in Alabama 
for ten years succeeding the war in the portions of the State 
cultivated only by negroes, if occuring at any time before the 
war, would have driven the last slave, and the last slave- 
owner, from these sections, and the soil itself would have been 
called accursed. The question then resolves itself into this, 
we must bring labor here that will be effective, or see our 
State given over to unthrift, idleness, and weeds, as has been 
the case in every other country in the world, where slave 
labor once formed the basis of agricultural wealth, and was 
afterwards set free. Our history, our traditions, our interest, 
all alike, forbid any idea of the latter suggestion. The meas- 
ures then to be adopted, to carry out the former, rises prom- 
inently before us. It would be of little use to demonstrate to 
the new millions of white people seeking homes in our coun- 
try every year, that the soil of Alabama was the most fertile 
in the production of agricultural values of any of the States 
of the Union, and leave the question of the agricultural capa- 
bilities of the new West untouched, and the whole line of 
frontier west of longitude 98*^ and 100° still supposed to be 
available for settlement and agriculture. A large portion of 



209 

this book has been devoted to the discussion of this open 
question. I trust I have demonstrated fully and conclusively, 
though with feelings of regret, as a citizen of the United 
States, that agricultural civilization, progressing always in the 
history of this country westward, has reached now its ex- 
treme western limit, or will do so in three or four years. 
The conclusion is evident, if all my premises are true, that 
the question of immigration to the rich lands of Alabama and 
other States of the South is very near at hand. Alabama 
has appeared before the world since the war only in the tat- 
tered garb of disappointment, distress and despair. The new 
millions coming upon the stage of action now, have seen her 
only through the jaundiced eyes of misrepresentation, calum- 
ny and fraud. To place her before the world in her true light, 
is one of the objects and duties of this paper. Her mineral in- 
terests have been referred to, though in a manner entirely un- 
scientific. The other industries along the line of the South 
and North Alabama Railroad have also been referred to and 
commented on. If the work does no other good, I hope it 
will convince my friends in Alabama that they now inhabit 
the best country in the world, and that they will give over all 
idea of deserting Alabama for that unknown and never found 
country where money comes without labor, and life is to be 
enjoyed without pain. 

JOHN T. MILNER. 



Erratum. — On page 157, 13th line from top, strike out the 
words, " the Commissioner concludes, as," — the copyist hav- 
ing inadvertently omitted the comments of the Commis- 
sioner. 



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